


Neverland: Larry and Their Lost Lads

by panda_bear21



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Peter Pan Fusion, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-29
Updated: 2014-03-20
Packaged: 2017-12-27 22:42:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 37,216
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/984476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/panda_bear21/pseuds/panda_bear21
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When a mysterious and very attractive boy shows up to Harry Styles window one night asking if he wants to be taken away to a place called Neverland, Harry ignores all reasons as to why it would be a bad idea and says yes.<br/>The boy, Louis Tomlinson, whisks him and his two siblings out of their London home and to a mysterious world where Harry meets mermaids, Indians, and the most dreadful pirate of the seven seas: Captain Simon. It isn’t surprising that through this time away from home, Harry finds himself falling in love with this blue eyed stranger and his group of mischievous and rambunctious Lost Lads.<br/>With his new family forming, can Harry find it in himself to go back to London for his parents and siblings' sakes?   Or will he decide to stay in Neverland with Louis and their Lost Lads for forever?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I just really needed to write a Peter Pan/Larry Stylinson fic... I hope whoever reads this enjoys it! ^_^

_“I suppose it's like the ticking crocodile, isn't it? Time is chasing after all of us.”_

_― J.M. Barrie_

 

[Harry’s POV]

 

…I really didn’t want to grow up, not even one day older than the age I was at that moment.  And I knew thinking about it was only going to keep me awake longer; but I couldn’t stop myself.

Lying in bed, day-dreaming of a more exciting life seemed to be all that I could do to pass the time.  I wasn’t afraid of growing up; I just knew that the future could be a frightful place.  One I didn’t want to experience… at least not quite yet.

 

My eyes wandered over the walls as my brain began zoning out, dreaming up an epic adventure about pirates and mermaids.  It definitely didn’t do much to sooth me to sleep as I shifted around on my covers.

Staring across the room I noticed the odd colors the moonlight cast against my white walls.  A flash of black across the surface brought me back from my dream world.  Slowly stirring, I sat up blinking, wondering if I had imagined the movement. Maybe it was my cat, though I could’ve sworn I had put her in the hall before getting into bed.

I repositioned myself, sinking back into my daydreams when I saw the same odd flash of movement; a dark shadow creeping past my wardrobe.  I shot my head around, scanning the room for the object creating the darkness.  My heart involuntarily began thumping louder.  There was no one there, but I could’ve sworn I had seen something… something quite large.  A cold breeze drifted through my window.  I continued sitting straight for another few moments; nothing out of the ordinary happening.

Maybe I had dreamt it up…

Laying my curly head back down onto the soft pillow, I tried closing my eyelids to calm down.  I heard a creak from the window but blamed it on the wind; too afraid to see if it was anything else.

I gulped silently, feeling my body sweat when I heard another noise.  Taking a deep breath I swiftly sat up looking all around in the dark room.  The moon’s light highlighted most of the area, but I couldn’t shake the weird feeling that someone was there.

The next time I heard a movement I stood up promptly to close the window, my hands shaking the slightest bit.  I was half way there when a boy suddenly appeared from above making me gasp in utter terror.

I stared, wide eyed, at the stranger who stood in front of me.  He had a short stature and was wearing a vivid green outfit.  His hair was a feathery auburn; his eyes a beautiful blue.  Something about him seemed familiar, but I couldn’t quite pinpoint what it was.

He stared back at me just as intently; I was speechless, fortunately or I’d probably be screaming my head off.   Why was there a strange, and extremely attractive, boy standing in my room at 3 in the morning?!  I really must’ve been dreaming.

 

I calmed my thrumming heart, not saying anything, just watching the boy watch me.  He didn’t look dangerous…  He actually looked, not scary at all.  I took a gulp of air, trying to fully calm myself.  We stood staring in silence, for minutes, before he broke our gaze and began milling around my room looking beneath things and in drawers, completely ignoring my presence as if I wasn’t even there.

I cleared my throat, but he didn’t even spare me a glance.  “Hello?”  I asked timidly wondering if he would continue ignoring me.  He glanced around my room speedily, not making eye contact after glancing into my green eyes again.

“Hi.”  His response was short and sweet as he turned his back towards me, giving me a good look at his bum.  Again it seemed as if I knew the lad.

“Umm hi...”  I responded back again before I could stop myself.  He let out a small chuckle before facing me once more; a grin forming on his thin lips.

“What’s your name?”  He asked in a light voice that had me sweating some more.

“Uh. Harry...  Styles.”  I spoke up, slowly, unsure of whether it was wise to be telling the weird boy my name.

He nodded in response glancing around some more, muttering while tapping a finger to his perfectly sculpted chin.  “I could’ve sworn I lost it here…”

What he seemed to be looking for I had no idea, but I frowned as he began pacing, not liking when his attention wasn’t on me.  “What’s your name?”  I quipped back indignantly.  It was only fair that I got a name in return for giving him mine.  The lad stopped and stared at me for a few more moments before splitting into an unexpected bout of laughter, as if I had just told an extremely funny joke.

When his giggling fit was over, he stood up straighter, puffing his chest out the slightest bit, giving me the most dashing smile he could muster.

“I’m Louis Tomlinson!”  He stated as if I should’ve known who that was.  He blinked at me, his smile slowly fading as I stared blankly back.   “You… don’t know who I am…?”

I shook my head slowly, making him gasp in mock horror.  But before he could respond with what I’m sure would’ve been a witty comment his attention averted to something else again and without any warning he darted forward, grabbing onto a dark shape clinging to the wall; the thing I had seen earlier.  Louis and the shape rolled around on the carpeted floor of my room rustling the furniture where they bumped into it.  Grunts escaped the boy’s lips as he straddled the dark shape.  “I don’t think so bub.”  He grumbled to it as I slowly moved over to crouch next to him realizing that the thing was a shadow, one that matched the boy’s frame perfectly.

“Uh…”  I warily began to speak as he let out a few deep breaths to blow the fringe out of his eyes where it hung.

He glanced at me, still lying on the figure so it wouldn’t escape.  “Yes?”   He questioned, bringing his hand up to rest his cheek on it, the shadow still squirming beneath him.

“Do you maybe, like… need some help?”  The boy looked down at himself then back to me as if unsure whether he wanted my assistance or not.

“You know how to sew?”  He scrutinized as I slowly nodded in response.  I had seen my mom do it enough times to wing it pretty successfully myself.  His face immediately lit up into a grin.  “Perfect.”

“Okay.  I’ll be right back. Just… please be quiet.”  I whispered, hoping he hadn’t already woken up any of my family members with his roughhousing; my younger brother Liam was a light sleeper and waking him would mean I’d have a lot to explain.

 

The strange boy nodded unconvincingly as if he wasn’t actually going to do what I asked.  I got up, exiting, quietly passing by my baby sister Lux’s nursery to grab the sewing kit my mom usually left on her bookshelf.  Trekking back to my own room I could see Louis sitting on the ground holding onto the ankle of his shadow.  He was talking to a little glowing light while vicariously trying to attach the black thing using pure force alone.   I moved to sit next to him realizing the light was actually a person, a small pixie; one with pretty brunette hair and sparkles falling off of her wings and body.

“Oh hello.”  I said to it, mildly shocked.  She responded something in return that sounded like gibberish to me, following it up by sticking her nose in the air, crossing her arms, and turning away; a sure fire sign, no matter the language, that she didn’t like me.  Louis laughed melodically again as I stared at his lips; something I often did when someone interested me.

“El, don’t say that!”  He chuckled some more turning to me as I threaded some string in a needle.  “Harry, this is Tinker El!  Her real names Eleanor, but you can call her El for short.”  The fairy said something else in her high pitched voice making Louis laugh again.  She flew towards my dresser sitting down on my alarm clock, flexing her toes.

I took Louis’ foot and his shadow’s connecting them again.  I could feel his gaze on me making me bite my lip self-consciously.

“So how did your shadow end up in my room?”  I asked, glancing up at him.  He looked away in thought.

“Oh… it snagged on your windowsill yesterday when I was leaving.”  He said as if that was a completely normal reason.

“You were at my house yesterday?”  If I hadn’t felt self-conscious earlier I certainly did now.  What if he had seen me doing something embarrassing…

“Yep!”  He responded easily.

“Why?”  I quickly questioned my voice a little higher pitched than usual.

He flipped fringe out of his face.  “Oh, uh… I like hearing you sing.”

I felt my cheeks flush.  “You do?”  I thought back to the songs I had been singing the other day.  I had only ever sung to myself before, I never thought anyone would actually listen to me of their own accord...

He nodded curtly, smiling in my direction as I continued lacing the shadow back to his tiny shoed feet.  A few stiches later I cut the excess string off.  “Alright, done.”  I looked down at my work feeling pretty content about the job I had done.  Picking up the utensils I’d used, he stood as well, a huge grin on his lips.

 

He jumped in excitement bounding off the walls, flying.  He was flying!  He whooped loudly knocking a stack of books off my wardrobe making me cringe at the loud thuds that ensued.  He peered back at me pausing his movement.  “Sorry Harry.”  I just shrugged in response knowing that if someone woke up, it was too late to worry about it now.  Liam would be here soon enough to ask what the noise was anyways; he was such a worry wart.

 

Louis came down, stepping closer to me to take my face in his hands, staring into my green eyes.  A few inches was the only space separating us; his proximity tripling my heart rate.  I could feel my knees getting a bit wobbly.  “Thanks Harry!”  He spoke sweetly, not stepping away.  I wondered if he knew normal individuals didn’t stand that close to people they had just met… not that I minded all that much.

“What?  You want a kiss?”  I asked jokingly, my voice coming out a little shaky.  He backed up a small step dropping his hands, tilting his head cutely.

“What’s a kiss?”  My mouth fell open at that.  He didn’t know what a kiss was… He didn’t… know….

“Would you like me to show you?”  The words flew out of my mouth before I could process.  He grinned, nodding as I took a timid step closer.  Suddenly the door flew open revealing a groggy looking Liam.  He glanced at me and the stranger realizing what he had just heard through the thin door.  “Oh-uh this is a kiss.”  I spoke quickly, holding up a thimble I already had in my hands, dropping it into Louis’ awaiting palm.  Liam stared at the stranger; his short hair stuck up oddly from sleeping on it.

“Harry, that’s a thi-“  I shushed him before he could finish his sentence, my cheeks turning a deeper red color.  Louis’ face lit up with excitement.

“Wow, thanks!  This is cool.”  He rolled it around in his palm, tossing it in the air and catching it a few times, thoroughly entertained.

“Who…”  But before Liam even finished asking his question his whole face lit up with an overwhelmed expression.  He quickly came into my room, closing the door behind him.  “You’re Louis Tomlinson!!!”  For a moment I thought he was going to start breaking out into fan-girl screams.  Louis grinned standing in that pose he had earlier, his chest puffed out, a heroic look on his face.

“Yes I am, young lad.  And who are you?”  He spoke, amusing himself by making his voice deeper.  He grinned widely as Liam stared at him in awe.

“Li-Liam Styles…  I love you!”  He squealed the last part.  Louis chuckled as I stared in shock at my brother; I’d never seen him act like this before.

Looking at his large brown eyes I spoke up, still vexed by his reaction.  “Liam, how do you know Louis?”  He only gave me an ‘are-you-stupid’ look in response.

Finally he answered realizing I still didn’t get the connection.  “Don’t you remember?!  Grandpa used to always read us the book ‘Neverland’?  About a boy named Louis Tomlinson?  That’s him.”  He stated pointing at the green clad lad who was brushing imaginary fuzz off himself not trying in the least to looking humble.  He flashed me another grin and suddenly everything clicked.  That’s where I thought I knew him from!  Back when I was younger, grandpa would read us Louis' story; the pictures didn’t do him justice though, he was much fitter in real life.

The recognition must’ve been written all over my face because Louis was chuckling again.

“Can I have an autograph?”   Liam questioned, his hands in a pleading position.  Louis flipped his short hair to the side looking down at the shorter boy.

“Well, okay, if you insist.”

Liam cheered some more.  “Thank you!  I’ll be right back with my book and a pen!”  He said quite loudly for so early in the morning; I really hoped my parents hadn't woken up...  It was a good thing that their room was all the way on the other side of the house.

 

A loud thud came from the hallway, followed by a relatively vulgar exclamation from Liam.  I face-palmed knowing what was coming next.  And I was right when high pitched screams erupted from Lux’s room.  I scurried out of my own to reach her cries after telling Louis to not leave until I was back.  He merely shrugged, jumping on my bed as Tinker El flew around his head.

Throwing the door open to Lux’s room, I pulled her small three year old body into my arms beginning to whisper calming things into her ears, gently rocking her from side to side.   When her whimpers were almost pacified, my mom came trudging into the room, large bags under her eyes.  She stopped when she saw me, letting out a yawn.

“Oh Harry, I didn’t know you were in here.”  Her voice sounded groggy and exhausted; she having had a rough day at work the previous morning.

“You can go back to sleep mum.  I’ve got this.”  I spoke quietly.  She thanked me, giving a quick kiss to the top of our heads before walking back out and returning to her room.  I sighed, taking a sniffling Lux back to my room with me, making sure to grab her favorite teddy on the way out.

Louis was sprawled on my bed, an arm behind his head to prop it up, the other one holding the journal I had written in earlier.

“Louis!”  He immediately looked up at me, smiling at the fact that he’d been caught reading it; the boy was definitely a troublemaker.

Before I could reprimand him for his actions, Liam reappeared in the doorway, rubbing at the back of his head.  “Sorry Harry…”  He spoke up, walking in and over to Louis who tossed my diary aside so he could sign Liam’s book.

He spoke to me as he did it.  “So Harry, I see that you don’t want to grow up...”  I stared at him, before slowly nodding, still irked that he had read my most recent entry.  “Come to Neverland with me?”  He asked quickly, hopping up on the bed to look down at me.  The way he said it made it sound less like a question and more like a request.

 

It was hard for me to not immediately deny him, but with nagging from Liam to “go, please, let’s go, I wanna go, please Harry, please!” and the fact that Louis intrigued me to no end, I ignored the reasons as to why it would not be a good idea to leave.

And it was true, I really didn’t want to grow up and in Neverland you never grow older...  At least in Louis' book it said he never would...  It only took me a few more seconds to deliberate.

Louis looked at me expectantly as I slowly spoke up with an unconfident sounding, “Okay…”   Liam’s beaming face made my decision that much more worth it though as he hugged me tight and Lux looked at us curiously.

“Neverwand?”  She asked sticking a finger in her mouth. I nodded at her small pale face.  “Yayy!”  She cheered clapping.  I put her down on the carpet where she stood looking up at Louis.  He smiled widely down at her.

“Well what are we waiting for, let’s go!”  Louis spoke up excitedly.  He began to fly out the window before turning to look at us expectantly.

We just stared back in awe.

When he realized we weren’t following, understanding took over.  He grabbed Eleanor from where she was flying near him and threw some of her sparkly stuff at us.  She wiggled about in protest, zooming away angrily once he let her go.  “Now think of happy thoughts and you can fly.”   He instructed.

Liam was the first to lift off the ground, probably because he was so intensely excited.  He had always wanted to go on an adventure, especially with his favorite book character, who just happened to be real, and now was his chance.  Flying was also easy for Lux when I told her to think of her teddy, Mr. Snuggles.  She had him wrapped tightly in her pudgy arms as she slowly drifted up into the air.  Liam cheered as he took Lux's hands, zipping quickly out my window to spin them in circles under the stars that littered the sky.

El followed the other two outside still angry at her treatment as I stood there dumbfounded.  I couldn’t think of anything happy at the moment which was really concerning.  All I could think of was how upset mum would be if we weren’t there in the morning.  I wanted to go, I really did, but I could not for the life of me think of something happy enough to lift me off the ground.

Louis came back into my room from where he was outside.  He landed next to me, unease on his face, hoping I hadn’t changed my mind.

“Let’s go Harry.”  He spoke slowly, grabbing my hand in his.  He gave a little squeeze before leading me towards the window.  The warmth he gave off made my heart beat quicken.  When he rubbed his thumb over the skin on the back of my palm I blushed.  I was about to tell him I couldn’t do it when I suddenly felt myself lifting off the ground.  The grin he gave me made my smile grow even larger.  I was flying!  This shouldn’t have even been happening, but it was!  His grip tightened around my fingers as he led me through the air.  My siblings whooped and hollered, most of it coming from Liam, as they flew around in the sky after us.

“Where is Neverland?”  I asked him curiously looking up at the bright moon shining down on us and the beautiful city buzzing from below.  He pointed ahead with his other hand, his eyes crinkling with a smile.

“Second star to the right and straight on till morning.”  His soft voice made butterflies flutter around in my stomach.  I took a gulp, excitement of the unexpected making me grip the boys hand the slightest bit snugger.  Louis made my pulse race, my heart beat quicken; being near him made me strangely happy; he made me feel like I could fly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys, if you read this whole chapter, I fully applaud you! This is the first fic I've ever written and it is very poorly written... I am sorry. But thanks if you have read it and I do hope you at least liked the concept! It gets better I promise! :)


	2. Chapter 2

[Third Person]

 

“She says it’s a Harry-bird.”  The ginger lad spoke up clumsily, grabbing the other’s attentions.

“Aren’t most birds hairy?”  The youngest blonde one asked, his Irish accent thick.

“No they have feathers.  There’s a difference.”  His brunette twin whispered to him soothingly.  He nodded, a confused expression still on his face.

The darker haired child raised his eyes to the figure, watching it move through the sky.  His voice was slow, “So… what do we do?”  The others just shrugged un-helpingly in response.

The red-headed boy listening to Tinker El whisper in his ear, piped up, excitement on his pale cheeks, “El says, Louis says to shoot it down.” At the words ‘shoot it down’ the rowdy group began yelling (“Oh oh, I wanna do it!”  “No no me!”  “No me!”) and tackling each other, each trying to get their own way.  The rough housing continued before the eldest popped out of the mound, putting one foot on top of the dog pile as he stood stoically above them.

“I’m oldest, I get it.”  He proclaimed as the rest rushed out from underneath him and his fox fur outfit to continue the argument.

The second youngest, the one clad in bear fur’s voice rose above the others, “Only by a few months.  You got to get the last one.  My turn!”  He argued raising his slingshot and a rock.  The other five scowled, crossing their arms, grumbling to themselves.  The black haired boy pulled back on the elastic sending the rock high in the sky.  El cheered when it hit its target and Harry began falling towards the ground.  The boy’s shouted excitedly, running over to where it should’ve fallen.

The thing the boys had knocked down didn’t look anything like a bird at all, when they stumbled upon it.  They stared at the curly haired boy holding on tightly to Louis’ neck who had him held to his chest princess style.  The boys stopped their hollering at the awful glare Louis had on his face.  They all stepped back the way they had come wondering if they would be able to run away quick enough.

“What.”  Louis stepped onto the ground from where he had been flying.  Harry still held in his arms from where he had been caught just in time.

“Were.”  He took a menacing stride towards the lads who quivered where they stood; eyes wide.

“You.”  Another step closer.

“Doing?!”  Louis placed Harry gingerly down as the boy rubbed at the side of his head where a small bruise was forming.

Suddenly all of the boys burst out in exclamatory sentences; voices all toppling over each other.  (“We didn’t mean it!”  “El told us to!”  “We thought that’s what you wanted!”  “Who is that?!”  “Don’t spank us!”  “I didn’t mean to!”  “Michael did it!!!”)

“Shush!”  Louis yelled, quieting the rioting children.  “Now Grimmy.  You tell us what happened.”  He said turning towards the oldest lad.

“Uh, well Tinker El told Ed that, that was a Harry-bird and that you wanted us to shoot it down.”  He stated pointing towards Harry who was standing awkwardly to the side of the group.

“Ed?”  Louis questioned turning towards the little red head; the third oldest.

“It was El.”  He quipped quickly, also pointing fingers, except this time at the little golden fairy fluttering away.

“Eleanor!”  Louis commanded as the small creature slowly turned around, an innocent smile on her face.  “Come here…”  She did as he said, not getting too close though in case he were to do something they both would regret.  “Apologize to Harry.”  She looked immediately taken aback, fiercely shaking her head.  Louis told her again, receiving the same response.  He gave a huff.  “Fine.  But you will apologize later.”  He turned curtly, facing the lads again who had nervous expressions on.  He gave them a very intimidating death glare, crossing his arms.  He could see a few of them gulp which made him want to laugh, but he couldn’t let the act drop quite yet.

As Louis continued staring the lads down, Harry sat on the ground still feeling a little light headed from his collision earlier.    It hadn’t really hurt, but the rock had hit him hard enough on the head that he blanked out for a bit.  When he realized he was spiraling towards the ground, he practically had a heart attack.

He was so glad Louis had caught him.  If he hadn’t, he would’ve been in so much pain, maybe even unconscious.  Harry glanced at the kids who had supposedly attacked him and thought they were all too adorable to have done such a thing.

Suddenly out of the silence, a little blonde one ran out of the huddle, moving towards Harry, arms flailing, tears falling.  “Don’t let him hurt us!”  He begged as he collided into Harry’s open arms holding the older boy tight, squeezing into him.  Harry patted the small one’s locks as he continued listening to him stumble over his words.  “We--we’re sorry.  We didn’t me-mean it.  Don’t let him hurt me!”  Unexpectedly Louis burst out into laughter.  The little one’s teary blue eyes looked over at the loud noise as Louis neared him, arms open.

“Oh Niall.  I wasn’t going to hurt you.”  He said, smiling, eyes crinkling as Niall got up and jumped into his arms with an ‘oomph’.  Louis held him close turning back towards the others who were chuckling awkwardly, relieved.

“Everyone, this is Harry.  And no he’s not a bird.”  Louis informed them as they all nodded looking Harry up and down as he stood.  He felt a little self-conscious, but relaxed when his brother and sister landed on the ground behind him.

“There you guys’ are!”  Liam exclaimed walking towards Harry.  “Saw you fall, are you okay?”  He asked, ever the responsible one.

“Yah I’m fine.”  Harry smiled as Lux toddled towards them.

When Liam turned to see the others in the circle he practically squealed.  “Oh My God!!!  It’s the Lost Lads!!!!  I can’t even!”  This caused Louis to laugh again as the boys smiled cheekily in response to being recognized by the brunette.

“Here, let me introduce you all.”  Louis spoke up as the lads plopped to the ground, all lazing in comfortable positions.  They assumed this was going to take a while so didn’t bother masking the boredom from their faces.   Liam nodded his head vigorously.  “Lads, this is Liam, Harry’s brother.  And that is Lux, Harry’s sis.”  Lux looked up when he called her name walking over to the boys lazing on the ground.  They smiled at her as she tripped on the eldest one falling to her face.  He giggled as she sat up and stared at him.

“Hello.”  He whispered to her as Louis continued with introductions.

“Alright Harry, I’m going to start from oldest to youngest.  You better pay attention, I’m not going to repeat myself.”  He informed pointing towards the curly brown haired lad cooing to Lux.  “That’s Nick.  But we call him Grimmy so you can call him that too.  That one right there is Michael.  He’s the one who hit you.”  Lou said grinning.  Michael lay on his back staring at Harry upside down.  He wore bear fur which clashed with his straight black hair.

“Sorry.”  He mouthed not wanting to interrupt Louis introductions.  Harry nodded, the boys apology already accepted.

“Then there’s Ed.”  He pointed to a chubby red head that was slumped, criss-cross apple sauce on the ground, drawing figures in the dirt.  “He speaks fluent fairy.”  He added in hoping to make it easier for Harry to remember their names if he knew something interesting about them too.  “And we have Zayn.  He’s quite shy.”  The little black haired boy blushed turning away, letting his rabbit outfit show fully.  He went over to a tree and sat in its shade away from Harry’s gaze.  “And lastly, we have the twins.”  Louis chuckled as one of them, the one not in his arms, was trying to crawl up his pants to get on his back.

“I’m Josh!”  The one trying to climb over Louis’ bum said charismatically.  The other one kicked at his brother when he neared the top, laughing while doing so.

“I’m Niall.”  He spoke up as Louis put him down.  When he was grounded Josh jumped on him as they rolled over each other, play-fighting like puppies, biting each other’s ears for good measure.  Harry let out a grin, his dimples showing.

Liam began scurrying around, trying to talk to them all as Lux fell asleep in Grimmy’s arms, who looked unsure of what to do with her, but content at the same time.

“Let me show you your new home!”  Lou said tugging on Harry’s arm pulling his attention back to him.  He led the younger boy through the brush a bit till they reached a large group of trees.  Running over to a crooked one Louis tugged on a branch, a door appearing on the side of it.  Louis swept his arm out, showing off the mysterious entrance.  Harry grinned, walking closer.

“Can I…?”  He asked stepping up to the dirt path leading down towards whatever was beneath the tree.  Louis snorted with a yes, excited for Harry to see his home.  Harry walked down as the darkness turned bright, small illuminations lighting the depths.  There was a large dirt room with a lot of rickety chairs scattered around a long wooden table.  Clothes, blankets, and who knows what were strewn about the area.

A small alcove had water dripping from the ceiling into a dish in the ground, soaking the dirt beneath.  They had running water which must’ve meant there was a stream nearby.

Moving further in Harry noticed that the lights were actually little jars with fireflies burning luminously inside.  He touched the outside of the smooth glass feeling the warmth tingle his skin.  A fireplace sat in the opposite wall of the lights, though no fire was burning in it at the moment.

“Over here next Harry!”  Louis gestured towards a door, made out of wood implanted into the dirt walls, right across from the main entrance.  Harry followed orders and went into the next room noticing a tree’s roots hanging from the ceiling, entwining itself through the walls, seemingly decorative.  A mess of blankets was nested in the corner probably on top of a mattress of sorts.

A few odd things were tossed around, artifacts Louis had probably picked up from his adventures.  Hanging on the wall was a treasure map with a large X painted on it, doodles lining the trail leading to it.

“Is this your room?”  Harry questioned with a grin.

Louis smiled largely in response, running over to the table next to his bed to put the thimble gingerly on it.  “And yours too now!”  He said smiling at the item Harry told him was a ‘kiss.’  Harry could feel his cheeks blaze up and was glad Louis was distracted.

“C’mon one more room!  This is where all the boys sleep.”  He said leading the way out of his room and to one on the left wall.  “It’s a mess.”  He indicated rolling his eyes.  This made Harry giggle uncomfortably, afraid of how messy it was going to be since the other two rooms looked like a tornado had blown through them.

Louis struggled pushing the door open, but when he did Harry’s mouth fell open.  There was so much random crap thrown all over the ground it was a wonder the Louis could even open the door.  The older boy laughed at Harry’s expression, pushing things out of the way so they could step into the room.

Harry’s eyes grazed over the hammock’s hanging from the ceiling, with some other beds laying on the floor aside the mess.  He internally shuddered, glad he was there; he was definitely going to clean up the clutter of a house.

“Yup, needs a womanly touch...  Good thing I’m here.”  He admitted turning back around as Louis smirked.

“So you like it?”  Louis asked way too excitedly.

“It is very… cute.  It’ll be great once it’s cleaned up a bit.”  Harry explained to a nodding Louis as they stepped out of the house and back into the fresh air.  “Are you going to show me the rest of Neverland today?”  Harry asked, trying to cover up a yawn.

“Nah, we have awhile to do that, plus you’ve been up all night!”  Harry nodded lethargically suddenly hit with a spell of drowsiness.

“I suppose you’re right.”  He agreed in the middle of his second yawn.  He shook the sleepiness out of his eyes as he proceeded back to the boys who were partaking in a game of throw the Mr. Snuggles, much to Lux’s displeasure.

Harry couldn’t help but notice how Louis seemed to really like kids as he ran over to Harry’s sister who was on the verge of tears.

“I’ve always wanted a girl.”  Louis said sweetly picking Lux up under her arms and tossing her in the air, easily catching her after.  She soon forgot all about her teddy as she fell into giggles and squeals.  

Louis smiled so lovingly at her that it touched Harry’s heart in a way he didn’t know it could.  “Lux-y Lux Lux.  You’re as sweet as a button, aren’t you?”  He cooed, stopping his motion to stare at her tiny yawning face.  “And you’re also tired aren’t you?”  He scrunched up his nose at her.

Harry breaking away from his trance walked over to where the boys were conversing, or rather trying to speak over each other as per usual.  “Have you ever killed a bear before Liam?”  Grimmy asked chewing on some nuts he had picked up off the ground.  Liam shook his head staring intently at the other boy his age.

“I’ll take you out there sometime.  It’s really something.”

“Yah, I got one all by myself on my first hunt!”  Michael exclaimed loudly, grinning proudly.

“No you didn’t.”  Ed quipped at him.

“Yah I did.”  Michael retorted just as nastily.  If Grimmy wasn’t standing in between them Harry was pretty sure the two would’ve pounced on each other right then and there.

“Oh and have you seen a hippo eat a fairy before?”  Ed asked making the other two break out into laughter as they recalled the event.  Liam shook his head again, enthralled by what they were saying.

“Well that hippo was not very happy after the fairy wasted away its insides!”

Michael laughed, “Or when it woke up from its nap on top of the mountain!” 

“How’d the fairy get eaten?”  Liam asked as if taking mental notes for later reference.  I really hoped he wasn’t going to try to attempt this himself.  The two boys turned to stare at Grimmy.

“It was just a joke!”  He exclaimed crouching closer to the ground, leaning in to whisper some more secrets to Liam.  Harry left the small gathering with hysterical laughter coming from behind him.  He glanced around for the other lost lads Louis had introduced him to.  He saw two of them, the younger ones, Josh and Niall he thinks they were, rolling around on top of each other.  They were fighting like puppies still, growling and pouncing on one another.

“I told you not to eat my food!”  The five year old protested, licking his brother’s cheek where the other lay under him.  Josh wriggled, biting Niall’s shoulder where he could reach it.

“I was hungry!”  The brunette twin exclaimed, taking another nip at Niall to try to get him off.  The other onlooker, Zayn, slowly walked up to the pudgy boys menacingly fighting each other and stared down at them for a few moments.  Without hesitation he plopped himself belly first on the two beneath, making them groan in response.  He just lay there as they squirmed in protest.

“Agh!  Get off me Zayn!”  Niall yelled at the black haired lad.

“Yah, you weigh so much!”  Josh added in complaining some more.  Zayn must’ve known the best way to get the twins to stop arguing with each other was to get them to gang up on someone else.  He just grinned, adjusting his body on them to a more comfortable position, silently informing that he wasn’t going to be getting up any time soon.

They eventually stopped their wiggling protests and stilled beneath him with a sigh as if giving up.

Niall soon whispered something into Josh’s ear though making his twin’s little grin appear.

“On the count of three.”  Josh whispered back.  “One… two… three.”  And with that they both bucked up, effectively sending Zayn flying off of them with a startle.  They then jumped on him, tackling his already grounded body into the dirt, yelling while playfully throwing limbs around and even kneeing each other when necessary.   Harry could tell all of the boys were crazy, but couldn’t help the smile that was spreading on his lips anyways.  There was something so endearing about them that he could feel the lads growing on him already.

He moved to sit down in the shade of a nearby tree.  He wasn’t feeling too great at the moment, the energy he had was low and the rumbles in his stomach were a clear indicator of his hunger.  He had, after all, last eaten only 24 hours ago, skipping dinner the day prior.  His groan was interrupted with Louis’ voice yelling to them from somewhere in the trees.

“Lunch time!”  He bellowed as all of the boys immediately looked up from what they were doing, instantaneously making a mad dash back towards their home in the ground.  Harry laughed as he stood, following after them, yawning yet again.

 

Their table was scattered with bowls of stew, cups of fresh water, and fruit. 

“Sit next to me Harry!”  Ed cheered before all the other boys cut in, pulling Harry left and right to different chairs.

“No, Harry’s sitting next to me.”  Grimmy cut in.

Michael slapped him in the face taking Harry’s hand.  “Nope, he likes me best anyway.  Right Harry?”

“You shot him.  He probably hates you.”  Grimmy countered before snatching Harry’s other hand as they began a very uncomfortable tug of war game with the boy’s arms.

“Everyone sit down!”  Louis shouted over the ruckus.  The boys quickly dropped his arms scampering to what Harry assumed were their designated spots.  “Harry is going to sit at the other head of the table and that’s final.  Now eat your meals.”  The boys didn’t have to be told twice before food began sloppily piling into their mouths.  Harry took his seat next to Zayn, the tamest of the lads, and began eating his stew slowly, enjoying its flavor.  He especially enjoyed the excessive amounts of carrots stirred around in it.

Lux sat low in the chair next to him, unable to reach her bowl.  Harry quickly scooped her into his lap so she could feed herself better.   Glancing over at Liam who sat in between Josh and Michael, he could tell his brother was trying to not look disgusted with the uncivilized way the other boys were eating.  Harry could agree that it was pretty gross to watch so he just focused his gaze on his own soup.  When his eyes did wander up they always got caught looking at the beautiful blue ones belonging to the boy sitting across from him.

Lux yawned for the fifth time since they had started eating, making Harry begin his yawn-fest all over again.

“Zayn your turn for dishes.”  Louis spoke up as he noticed everyone slow their intake of food.  Zayn began doing so, rinsing the bowls off in the sink by the fireplace as Louis propped his feet up on the table, placing his hands behind his head.

“Oooh Louis, can we show Liam the Indian reservation?”  Michael asked pointing to himself and the other lads.  Louis looked thoughtful for a moment before he saw me yawn again.

“No.  Not today.”  He glanced at my siblings before continuing.  “Harry, Liam, and Lux are tired so we’re all going to go to bed now.”

 

 

[Harry’s POV]

 

“But I can tell you all a bedtime story beforehand.”  He informed the group.  I was glad for Liam’s sake that Louis had said no.  I wouldn’t want my brother fainting from exhaustion or anything.

The lads honestly seemed too hyped up to go to bed at the moment, but they didn’t argue, instead seeming excited for Louis’ story as they suggested ideas for which tale he should tell.  I was surprised they weren’t arguing with him since they argued with each other so often, but I suppose that was just the group dynamic.  To always do what Louis says.

“Oh, oh, please tell us of when you cut off Captain Simon’s hand!” The kids pleaded.  I tried thinking back to who that was, though the name struck a bell.  It clicked after a few moments of thought; Captain Simon was Louis’ arch rival.  I remembered hearing about him when we used to be read Louis Tomlinson’s adventures.  

“Yes!”  Lux added in, holding her teddy close.  She had also always loved hearing the tails we were told; especially when the pirates were mentioned.

“Do it Lou, that’s a good one!”  Ed urged, relaxing his head on the table as Louis chuckled, pacing the floor as if deciding whether to tell or not.  The grin on his face showed he had already made his decision though.

He jumped on the table squatting down to look each of the viewers in the eye.  “I was at Pirate’s Cove, surrounded by at least fifty pirates.  Captain Si was heading them all and I knew I couldn’t let them continue with what they were planning.  You see, if they got past me, they were going to destroy El and the rest of the fairy’s home.”

Everyone stared at him, riveted by the story.  His voice had me captivated, let alone his fantastic story telling skills.  The way his blue eyes flickered with excitement as he retold his memory had my heart fluttering.  I couldn’t stop myself from staring at his lips as they moved, his playful accent coming through as he mimicked Captain Simon’s voice.  I visibly shivered every time his eyes glanced in my direction, a smirk playing on his lips when he noticed.

“And then I cut off his hand!”  Gasps came from the audience even though I was pretty sure the Lost Lads had heard the story before, numerous times, and already knew what was coming.  “He kept attacking though; I probably wouldn’t have been able to make it out of there alive if it weren’t for El.  Simon sure was furious.”  He continued enthusiastically, using his arms animatedly for affect.

When the story ended with him coming back to the house and crashing for days all of the boys seemed the tiniest bit more tired than before.  I suppose reliving Louis’ adventure put them in a trance.

“Alright, bedtime now!  Boys scatter.”  Lou commanded playfully making all the lads immediately begin scurrying wildly into their room taking already sleeping Lux and tired looking Liam with them.  I wanted to go check on my siblings to make sure they would be alright and would have a place to sleep, but felt a warm hand on my back leading me in the opposite direction.  “You can sleep in my bed tonight Harry.”  Louis said opening the door for me.  It was slightly colder in this room than in the other where the fire was burning, but I knew the blankets would keep me warm.

“Are you going to sleep there too?”  I asked trying not to sound like a prude.  Truthfully I was hoping he would say yes, but he shook his head no, a gentle smile crossing his features.

“I have some very important things to do.”  He said leaning against the door frame as I stepped closer towards the bed feeling dreadfully tired.  “In fact, I probably won’t be back till tomorrow.  But if you need anything, feel free to boss the boys around.”  I nodded, feeling my lids droop as I sat on top of his bed.  I was still in my pajama pants and a loose t-shirt from my house so I just pulled the covers up and over myself, snuggling in.  I still wished Louis could be sleeping with me, the bed would be so much more comfy, but I closed my eyes anyways feeling myself slowly drift away.

The last thing I heard before I fell asleep was a soft, “Goodnight Harry,” from the boy who somehow kept making my heart tingle funny and my stomach twist into knots.  I smiled knowing I was going to dream of beautiful cerulean eyes and wonderful adventures.


	3. Chapter 3

[Harry’s POV]

 

I woke up to obnoxiously loud voices coming from the larger room outside my door and a racket so intense I couldn’t quite believe it was only morning.  It sounded as if someone was taking pots and pans and banging them together.  Getting up to see what in heaven’s name was going on I heard an even louder shout quieting the other children.

“Shut-up everyone!  Harry’s still asleep!”  Liam yelled over the ruckus.  I opened the door to see him standing on top of the table before he turned to me and we made prolonged eye contact.

“Not anymore actually…”  I informed, taking in the other children’s locations.  Grimmy and Michael were literally smashing a metal ladle into the sides of a pot, stirring who knows what, while Ed waltzed around throwing leaves everywhere.  Josh and Niall stood on top of two chairs playing tug of war with a blanket, easily ignoring Lux who was beneath them crying.

Zayn, out of all the kids, was the only one calmly and quietly sitting in his chair.  It took me a beat before I realized that he was in fact, sleeping; even being surrounded by all the commotion that had woken me up, he was unconscious...  I was honestly quite impressed.  

Taking another glance around the room, all the lads just stared back at me, as if being caught doing something they really shouldn’t have been.

Internally sighing I spoke up breaking the awkward tension, “Okay boys, out of the house.  I’ll call you back when breakfast is ready, but this is just insane!  Go roughhouse _outside_.”  The lads continued to stare back, unmoving.  “Please.”   I tacked on the end waiting for any sign of acknowledgment.

“Last one outside is a rotten pirate!”  Michael bellowed before running for the door.  The other lads dived after him till the only two in the house were me and a still crying Lux.  I sighed again before picking her up and calming her-tiny-self down.

“Okay Luxy, you going to help me make breakfast?”  I asked bouncing her up and down on my hip while looking into the pot the two eldest boys were banging around in earlier.  There was some stuff already in it and a fire lit beneath so I began stirring, waiting till the liquid warmed.

Lux nodded slowly watching my every stir.  “That’s much better...  Are you hungry?”  I asked her, testing the porridge first before giving her a little taste as well.  It wasn’t half bad and was almost warm enough to serve.  Leaving the soup, I put Lux down in one of the chairs, walking over to begin picking up the leaves Ed had randomly decided to throw everywhere.  I wondered if mischief was in the job description for being a Lost Lad because they certainly seemed to partake in a lot of it.

After picking up the discarded foliage I rechecked the porridge whose temperature was just right.  Filling up all of the lads bowls except for Louis’ because I wasn’t sure whether he was even home yet, I placed them out, one to every spot.  

I went over to the door mentally taking notes of what items could be cleaned during the day and what trash I could discard of.  “Breakfast is ready!”  I called outside hoping I was loud enough to be heard.  The boys appeared so quickly it was almost like magic.

“Alright everyone, we’re going to speak with our indoor voices when we’re _indoors_.  Understand?”  I asked as everybody took their desired chairs at the table and began filling up with food.  I glanced over their mud and dirt covered bodies receiving nods in return since their mouths were too full for a response.

“Grimmy, where is the closest stream?”   I questioned the oldest.   He took another spoonful of porridge before responding, sloppily spilling some of it on the table.

“Take a right outside and then a little ways to the left.”  He pointed.

Nodding, I mulled over my options.  I was a little grumpy from being woken up so brashly that morning _and_ the kids _were_ dirty… so making them bathe would definitely be a win-win for me.

“Alright, well you’re all taking baths then!”  I cheered making most of their mouths fall open in disgust.

Ed seemed the most upset about my decision as he began to full-out pout.  “No Harry please don’t make us!”  He whined running his hands through his ginger hair and down his cutely chubby face.

“Yah I haven’t had a bath in a good two weeks.”  Michael tagged on.  I just shook my head, grinning at them.

“Sorry lads, Louis gave me full authorization to boss you all around.  Plus if you make it quick you can get back to playing, yah?”  I received some more pouts, a few begging pleas, and one or two head nods, mostly from Liam who seemed glad the other boys would be cleaning themselves.

“Josh your turn for dishes!”  Niall yelled over the mumbled conversations going on around him before Zayn quieted the loud blonde, remembering my indoor voices rule.  I smiled at how well everyone was behaving considering they didn’t usually take orders from anyone unless it was Louis himself.

Finishing my last spoon-full of porridge I listened intently to the conversations around me.  Most were silly nonsense, but one question Liam asked sparked my interest.  “Where’s Louis?”  I was glad I wasn’t the only one curious as to where our tenant went.  Shrugs greeted my brother in return.

“I think he went to talk to the Indian chief and his daughter Danielle.”  Zayn spoke up when no one else did, sipping on the last bits of his soup.  A few thoughtful nods circled around the table.

“He’s been gone all night though.”  I added in wondering if the boys knew something more.

Grimmy’s eyes lit up with excitement.  “Maybe he’s been captured by them wild men!  We have to go save him!!”

“No.  He went to discuss territory, duh.”  Ed retorted back, flicking Grimmy’s hand away from the apple he was reaching for.

“Yah and the Indian chief loves having company.  He throws the best parties!”  Michael randomly added in, chewing on a pear.

There was silence before Liam spoke up, quietly, staring down at his bowl.  “Wait, so… Danielle is there?”

“Yup!”  The twins answered together from where Josh sat on Niall’s lap.  I could see Liam visibly take a gulp of air before turning a light shade of green.  He looked like he was going to be sick.

“Li, are you okay?”  I asked standing up to feel his forehead.  He batted my hand away before scoffing.

“Of course.  I’m a man after all.  I feel nothing.”  I couldn’t help the dimpled grin that appeared on my face.

“Someone’s getting defensive… you don’t have a crush on the Indian princess do you?”  He turned a light pink color instead before quickly protesting.

“Of course not!  I’m a man after all.  I feel nothing.”  I let out a laugh.

“You just said that...”  He visibly began to sweat as I patted his hair down from where it was sticking up.  “It’s okay babe, I’m just teasing you.”  He relaxed a little bit before turning his attention to the other kids who were each taking turns spoon-feeding Lux; probably since they felt bad for making her cry earlier.  I, on the other hand, began helping Josh clean up the breakfast bowls.

After clearing those all away I made sure each of the boys spent at least five minutes in the stream washing.  I heard an extremely large amount of grumbles, but figured that slightly upset clean lads were much better than stinky content ones.  Plus they’d probably be dirty again come dinnertime.

 

Keeping everyone out of the house after breakfast to do some tidying up was easier done than I expected, seeing as the day was a bright and sunny one.  I was in the middle of cleaning up the lad’s room and making one of their beds when dainty hands blocked my eyes.

“Guess who.”  The boy said in an unnaturally deep voice that sounded way too forced.  I couldn’t help but burst out laughing.

“Louis,” I responded lightly, turning around to see his grinning face.

He pulled his hands away, jumping to the other side of the hammock I was now trying to tame.   “How was your morning?”  He asked, helping me press the sheets down as I informed him of my early wakeup call and revenge plot which was making the Lost Lads clean themselves.

He seemed quite astounded.  “You were able to make them bathe?!”  Disbelief colored his tone.

“Well… I think they only did it because you said I could boss them around.”  I responded back making him nod in understanding.

The older boy quickly changed the subject as his eyes perused the area.  “The place looks nice.”  He said smoothly looking around at the newly de-cluttered ground.

I smiled as we moved onto the next tangle of blankets.  “I was thinking a little spring cleaning may have been necessary...”

 

The rest of the day passed relatively quickly.  A bit after lunch time, but a bit before dinner, everyone went outside and the lads picked me flowers, making a beautiful flower headband out of them.  Lou seemed to really enjoy my wearing it, so I kept it on for the rest of the evening.

It was nearing sunset when the boys made their way inside forgetting all about my indoor voices rule and yelling as if they had never yelled before.  Louis stopped me before I entered, shutting the door so it was only the two of us outside together.

“I want to show you something Haz.”  He spoke up, giving me no chance to respond before taking my hand in his and pulling me into the air.  I gasped at the sudden sensation of defying gravity.

“What is it?”  I asked feeling the wind blow through my curly hair.

“Just come with me and you’ll see.”  He said smiling childishly, his eyes crinkling in the corners.

I tried to not look down in fear that the height would frighten me, as my near death fall had happened only yesterday.  I knew it was silly with Louis’ hand grasped tightly around mine, but I still felt scared of the far drop.   I kept looking ahead until we began lowering into a large grouping of trees.

Louis and I landed on a thick tree limb before he took us a bit further into the woods, having us jump from tree branch to tree branch.  “This way Harry.”  He whispered never letting go of my hand as he led the way.  I smacked my nose into his back when he abruptly stopped to check his surroundings.

With a confident nod he looked back at me.  “Alright, you can sit down.”  He directed as I followed his example.  Settling down on the hard tree limb beneath us, I realized just how close I was to him; our thighs touched and the heat radiating off his skin created goose bumps on mine.

I looked to him to see what it was that he wanted to show me.  The childish grin he had on his face made my heart beat quicken as he put a smooth finger to his lips in a silencing motion.  Nodding his head to the side directed my attention towards the leafy curtain in front of us.

He silently pulled the curtain to the side, hooking it behind a tree limb so that we could see clearly.  I looked out, down towards the ground were a stout tree stood surrounded by glows that moved about quickly.  At first I thought they were fireflies, but with further inspection I could see golden fairy dust falling from their movements.

The ground seemed painted in spattering’s of gold as the fairies twirled in circles around each other.  Flowers bloomed below even without the sun and if I looked above I could barely see the moon sticking out from behind light grey clouds.  

Louis leaned into my side, innocently whispering in my ear as if he didn’t want the fairy’s to know we were there.  “What do you think?”  His cool breath made my now empty palms start to sweat.

I watched the picture in front of me, the small creatures moving freely about.  “It’s… magical.”   I spoke lightly staring at the pixies dancing around in the night sky.  He let out a breathless chuckle staring ahead as I tilted my head to look at him.  

Louis’ cheekbones stood out fiercely in the light, his eyes lit with excitement.  He licked his bottom lip before turning to face me again.  I stared for only a few more moments before blushing and turning my head away.  “Tell me about them...”  I spoke into the silence, still feeling his eyes on the side of my face.

“Who?”  He asked sounding distracted.

I nodded forward.  “The fairies.”

It took him a moment before he started responding.  “Well they’re very moody...  Their bodies are so small they can only really feel one emotion at a time.”  He snickered thinking back to something.  “But El has always been overly moody.  She’s not usually so mean though; I guess she just doesn’t like you.”  He said shrugging, making me scoff.

“I noticed…”

“Don’t let El’s opinion bother you.  Cause I like you.”  He said making me bite the inside of my cheek to stop from smiling.  A few moments of silence passed before he spoke up again, timidly this time.  “Do… you like me Harry?”

I nodded wondering how he could’ve thought any differently.  “I like you a lot Louis.”  I said bashfully making his lips immediately form into a grin.

“Good.”

The smile his lips formed made my own appear.  “How old are you?”  I questioned filling the peaceful silence between us.  He tapped his chin in thought.

“Eighteen...” He seemed uncertain, but he looked to be about that age so it was probably in that ball-park.  I wondered how long he had been on Neverland to have forgotten how old he was.

“How old is Grimmy?”  I asked, curious to see how much younger he was from me.

“Twelve I think…”  He said uncertainly.  That meant there was a six year age difference between Louis and Grimmy and a four year age difference between Grimmy and I.  The differing maturity levels were definitely evident.

“Don’t you ever get lonely?”  I questioned taking in the way his blue eyes darkened a little before he responded.  

“No I have the Lost Lads.”  He said grinning though the smile didn’t touch his eyes.

“No I mean… besides them, don’t you get _lonely_?”  His smile dimmed as he kept his eyes fixed ahead.  There was a long silence before he spoke back.

“Sometimes…”  He murmured, “But when I do, I usually go listen to you sing.”  He admitted, not the least bit self-conscious for saying it.  My cheeks reddened again as he glanced back at me.

“How often…?”

“How often what?”  He teased playfully.

“-did you come hear me sing?”

He shrugged his shoulders.  “Every once in a while…”  He responded un-committedly.  “Will you do it now though?  Sing for me?”  His voice echoed, his blue eyes staring into mine.  I pulled my knees up to my chin to hide my flustered face, shaking my head.

Louis’ laugh filled the brisk air.  “Please?”  He begged.  I just shook my head again not looking up.  He started tugging on my curls till I was irritated enough to glance at him.  “Please?”  He asked again, softer this time making my heart skip.  He was so close it was hard to keep myself from leaning forward and pressing my lips to his.

I sighed in defeat making him beam that smile I had quickly grown to love.

“What do you want me to sing?”

“Hmm, anything really.”  He said swinging his legs back and forth beneath him.  My mind immediately wandered towards the song that had been playing in my mind all morning, the one that made me think immediately of Louis.  I began singing Forever Young as he stared at me, enraptured by the notes coming from my vocal chords; I tried to not shy away from the attention.

After singing the last note I couldn’t bring myself to look at him until moments of silence passed.  Quickly glancing in his direction I could see his eyes shining with endearment.  “Your voice is beautiful.”

Goose bumps reappeared on my arms at the admission.  I ducked my head as he looked forward again, towards the pretty fairies dancing around.  He rested his chin on the palm of his hands as if sitting in thought.  “I like that song…”

He began humming to it, his eyes suddenly lighting up with delight as he stood to his feet.  I looked up at him confused, before he quickly swept my hands into his and pulled me into the air again.  We slowly escalated as he continued humming, spinning me in time with the beat.  I couldn’t stop the dimples from appearing on my face or the smile that came with them.  We moved further up in the air, above the trees where the white stars shined so brightly.  My mouth fell open in pure amazement though it was hard to bask in their beauty when my attention was on the glow in Louis’ eyes.  

We twirled, our hands held in each other’s as the moonlight cascaded downward.  He smiled at me as he pulled us above a layer of clouds, stopping us on the top of a white fluffy one where we stood glancing at each other.  I took my eyes away from him to see the moon looking so close that it was as if I could reach out and touch it.

I felt a warm hand lightly caress the side of my face, a small thumb pressing into the curve where my dimple was showing.  Turning back, I couldn’t stop my breath from catching.  Louis mouth was so close to mine as he stared, as if mesmerized, first at where his finger covered my dimple then to my lips.  His gaze traveled up to my eyes only for a moment before wandering back down to my mouth.

“Lou-”  I felt a sudden jerk of hair at the back of my head as I was yanked backwards.  I cried out, hearing a stream of indistinguishable noises as I swatted behind me to get whatever it was off.

The tug on my hair let up only slightly.  “El, what are you doing?!”  I heard Louis yell as I felt her finally let go of the iron grasp she had on my curls.  I suddenly didn’t feel so light when I began to fall towards the ground… again.

 

It only took a few moments before Louis caught me.  I breathed heavily and clung to him as tightly as I could.

I hated the feeling of free-falling and really wished I could fly like Louis so I wouldn’t have to worry about dying.  “Eleanor!”  He shouted as I felt the vibrations in his chest ring through me.  I kept my eyes closed, too wary to open them till I was safely on the ground.  “Why did you do that to Harry?!”  More fairy noises were heard, though I still couldn’t understand what she was saying.  “I don’t care if you don’t like him.  I’m so mad at you right now!”  Still more noises as I felt Louis lowering us towards the ground.  “No, I’m not talking to you until you apologize.”  I felt leaves brush past my face knowing that we were passing through the tallest of the trees.  “Well then this is goodbye Eleanor.  Don’t ever try to talk to me again.”  Louis said so angrily it even made me cringe.  I felt sort of bad for El, but didn’t say anything as I felt Louis still.  I opened my eyes realizing we were now grounded.  I loosened my tight grip from around his neck as I eased myself out of his arms.  When I looked up at his face all traces of anger I had heard earlier were gone.  His expression only showed concern as he brushed my curls aside.  “Are you okay Harry?”  He asked worriedly.  I only nodded in response still feeling a little light headed from falling.

“You shouldn’t have been so mean to El…”  I said quietly.  I didn’t know why I was defending her, but I didn’t want Louis to be losing friends over me.  He stiffened from where his forearms were wrapped around mine.

“She deserved it.  But we’re not going to talk about her.”  He spoke, the anger creeping back into his voice.  “Let’s go home…”  He said quietly letting go of my arms to walk back knowing I wouldn’t want to fly after what happened.  His pace was slightly faster than mine as he led the way, but he always waited to make sure I was following.  He was probably angry at me now for bringing it up.  I reached my hand out lightly touching his.  He paused a moment, staring down at the touch before taking my hand in his, fitting our fingers together perfectly. 

“I’m sorry…”  I said quietly.  I knew he wasn’t livid anymore, but I still felt like I needed to apologize for making him be mean to El.  He only shrugged.

“I could never be mad at you Harry.”  He looked back at me, a small smile working its way onto his lips.  I gripped his hand tighter as the rest of our walk was filled with a calming silence.

“Thank you for showing me such a pretty place.”  I spoke up knowing we were nearing our home in the ground.  The smile he enamored me with was back to its normal one.

“Of course Harry.  Anything for you.”  That made me blush as I saw the house ahead, a soft glow coming from the opening in its bark.  Quietly making our way inside I could see the dying embers of the fireplace lighting the empty room.  Louis opened the door to the boy’s room so we could peak our head in to make sure that everyone was accounted for.  All of the boys and Lux were sleeping soundly, a few random snores coming from here and there.  Louis shut the door behind us as we walked towards his room.

“Are you sleeping here tonight?”  I asked nonchalantly nestling into his bed.  Was it bad that I was still really hoping he’d say yes?  He grinned with a nod, placing a piece of fabric over the firefly light he had on his bedside table.  It was too dark to see well, but I could hear him jump onto the other side of the bed as me.

He pulled the blankets over us as I tried getting comfortable.  It had been so easy to fall asleep yesterday when I was by myself and extremely tired, but I couldn’t today, not when there was only such a small space between Louis and I.  He seemed to be having the same problem as I was because after a few short moments of lying motionless he grabbed my waist, pulling me towards him.  He tucked me under his chin in the most comfortable position I’d ever laid in.

I knew he could feel my soft breaths on his neck because he stiffened up where his arms were wrapped around mine.  I lightly pressed my fingers to his chest muscles as the space between us decreased.  The nervousness I felt was actually pulling me into a quiet lull of sleepiness.  I fit my legs in between his, holding lightly to the fabric of his green shirt.  His embrace was so relaxing, calming; I felt my body growing lax from the day’s events.  The easy rhythm of his heart beat sent me to a sleep that was the best I had ever had.  Being in his arms just felt right.


	4. Chapter 4

[Harry’s POV]

 

Waking up next to Louis felt so natural, as if it wasn’t the first time that I had.  I burrowed my head, snuggling into his warmth; getting used to the feel of his body around mine. 

It was a few moments before I felt the lax arms around me begin to move.  I kept my eyes closed and my breaths even as Louis traced lines down my arms, circling my thin wrists with his fingers.  He leaned away lightly touching my face again, like he had the night before, the pad of his thumb over where my dimple would be if I smiled.  I shivered, stirring till my eyes slowly blinked open to the darkness of the room.  There were no windows so it was hard to tell what time it was, but the chirping of the birds outside indicated it was sometime during the day.  Louis grinned at me before moving his hand away to pull the fabric off the light so we could see in the room.

“Good morning Harry!”  He said excitedly as he got up scratching at his scalp.  I brushed the grogginess from my eyes, sitting up to face him.

“Good morning to you too Louis.”   I responded back feeling my stomach grumble.

“Did you sleep well?”  He asked me whilst we made our way into the main room.  The front door was ajar where bright sunlight cascaded through and the distant yells of playing kids could be heard.  I nodded trying to hide my grin.

 

Louis and I ate some porridge as I took in the freshly organized and cleaned area we were in.  The place needed one last touch to add to what I had done to it yesterday.  It needed a splash of color and I knew just how to get it. 

After brunch, I made each of the kids paint a picture using smashed berries and thin pieces of bark.  Most of the boys’ pictures were dark like Grimmy’s which was of a bear and a wolf attacking each other, but I hung them up anyways, decorating the interior of the house with the creative artwork.  Some of the other lad’s paintings were much cheerier like Zayn’s which was of a pretty blonde mermaid.  Josh and Niall’s were also merrier as they painted a family like portrait of everyone smiling together.  

Louis really seemed to enjoy that particular painting.  “Harry, we’re like a big family right?” He asked me as the other children played around with the apples we had had for dinner, throwing them at each other as if they were cannon balls.

“I suppose so, yah.”  I responded back, my dimples showing.  Louis smiled in return before turning towards the boys and forcing them all to put down their apples.

“Alright Lads we’re going to be a big happy family. I’m going to be your daddy, and Harry will be your mommy!”  Louis decreed happily.  “That means you have to call me Daddy and him Mommy.” He said pointing, though my mouth was open in confusion.  He continued smiling charmingly.

“But Harry’s not a gurl…” I nodded my head to the statement though it only made Louis role his eyes playfully.

“Don’t back sass me Grimmy!  It only makes sense that Harry’s the mother since _I’m_ the father.”  Louis said hushing the child whilst shrugging his shoulders.  “I’ll be back later tonight.  _Mommy_ will tuck you all in and read you a bed time story.”  With that last statement he flew out the doorway leaving me, Lux, and the lads behind.

“Actually, you can call me Daddy.  Louis will be… Papa!”  I announced knowing Louis was out of hearing range.  The boys seemed uncertain, but grinned up at me anyways, most of them slumping into their chairs, feeling extra tired from their most recent dodge-apple game.  I stood up and began picking up their dirty dinner plates to carry to the make-shift sink we had in the corner of the room.  I finished clearing them away relatively quickly wondering what story I would tell the kids.  People back in London always said I was really bad at story telling though...

When I turned back around, all of the children yawned uniformly making me chuckle in relief.  It seemed there would be no need for a tale tonight. “Bed time already?”  I asked, guiding the boys to their room even as they protested.   They were all such big fakers; and stubborn too as they tried to tell me that they weren’t tired when they clearly all were.

A blurry eyed Michael spoke up first, “But Daddy, I’m still awake...”

He began crawling into his hammock when he was near it, obviously not trying too hard to defy my orders.  I smiled when he called me Daddy, he was so adorable.

“Yah, we want to stay up!”  My little blonde skunk sniveled as he climbed up onto Josh’s back so his twin could carry him to their hammocks.  I helped them into their bunks chuckling at his laziness.

It took them a few moments to settle into their blankets.  “Mommy, will you read me a story?”  Josh asked sleepily.  I nudged him under his covers telling myself I would correct him tomorrow and have him call me Daddy instead; but honestly I didn’t really mind that much.  He was so cute that I didn’t think I would care whatever he called me.

“Not tonight love, maybe tomorrow.”  He nodded, his eyes already closed.  I knew that if I did start telling him a story he would immediately have fallen asleep anyways.  Niall would’ve too as he was already snoring loudly from the hammock above his brother’s, transfixed in a deep slumber.  He had his arms flailed out which I quickly pushed back into their safe netting.

Moving on to the next set of blankets I could see a lump already underneath.  Ed was snoring, his face pressed into a plump pillow, his butt stuck in the air uncomfortably.  I giggled planting a light kiss to the back of his red hair.

I heard more giggling from the other two children as I walked over to them.  Michael, though previously tired was now partaking in a dirt throwing fight with Grimmy.  They were chucking small pieces of soil, picked off of the surrounding mud walls, at each other.  I lightly smacked the dirt out of both their hands as I walked by.

“Boys, its bed time.”  Groans were my response.  They rolled around in their hammocks, having mini temper tantrums.

“But Mom-Dad!!”  Nick’s whiny voice filtered the air as Michael soon joined in.

“Please Dad!!!!”

“You were tired twenty seconds ago!  No buts.  Bed time, now.”  I could tell they were about to rebuttal when I interrupted their complaints, “Do you want me to get Papa?”  That shut them up real quick.

“No.”  They pouted.

“Good.  Now sleep well boys.  You’re both taking baths tomorrow by the way.”  I informed as I glanced over their dirt covered bodies.  That got me a few more grumbles.  I kissed them both gently on the forehead, pulling their covers up to their chins.  The yawns I surprisingly received in response made me feel just as tired as they all were.  I walked back into the main room, seeing Liam and Zayn standing outside rocking Lux to sleep.

“Thanks Li.”  I said taking our baby sis from his hands.  Her little blonde tuffs of hair stuck out in random places bringing a smile to my lips.  I took her back into the other room placing her in her specified nest of blankets.  Liam followed suit jumping into his.  I smiled at them both before tucking the two in as well.

Now only one more little Lost Lad to put to bed...  Glancing around the small room, I went back out into the main one, noticing the darker brunette sitting in the corner, small tears falling from his eyes.

“What’s wrong babe?”  I asked pulling Zayn into my lap, feeling his fuzzy rabbit outfit warm my skin.  Tears collected at the bottom of his eyelids spilling over as he tried rubbing them away with stubbly fingers.

His tiny voice quivered cutely.  “I like this girl...”  He sniffled.  I cuddled him closer smiling to myself; my little seven year old was growing up so fast.

“Well who is this person?”  I asked patting his back.

His tears seemed to stop as he sniffled again.  “She’s really pretty...  And I like her blonde hair.”  He drawled slowly.

“Why’re you crying then?”  I wondered as he looked up at me with large brown eyes.

He glanced down again before speaking.  “She can’t walk…”

I tilted my head, confused.  “She can’t walk?”  I reiterated hoping he would continue.

“She doesn’t have feet.”

“She doesn’t have feet…?”  I questioned back still not sure what else to say to him.

“Yah… she’s a mermaid.”  The grin growing on my face was so large I probably would’ve scared him if he were to look at me.  Zayn was sad because he thought the girl he liked couldn’t walk...  He was so cute; it was hard to stifle an “aww.”

“Oh well, do you _really_ like her?”  I prodded smiling.  He nodded fervently.  “Then it doesn’t matter whether she has legs or not.  That’s what makes her unique and a reason why you like her right?”   He nodded again looking up into my eyes.  “Then you don’t need to cry.  Love will always prevail!”  I cheered enthusiastically giving a squeeze to his small shoulders.  Seeing as he was only seven, it made sense that he was sad that she was different than him… He didn’t understand that that’s how mermaids were created.

“Thanks Mommy….”  He murmured so quietly I almost didn’t hear.  I loved the affectionate way he said the name that I didn’t tell him to call me Daddy either.  I had always wanted to be the parent to a lot of kids anyways so it didn’t matter to me which one I was.

He rested his small head on my shoulder as I carried him into the other room.  “Off to bed now…  Maybe you’ll have dreams of your friend.”  I whispered placing him down under his blankets.

He smiled warmly.  “Her name’s Perrie.  She’s really nice.”  I smiled again, kissing his temple, quietly leaving the room full of sleeping children.

It felt like it had been a long time since I had put the kids to bed, when in reality it had only been at most ten minutes.  I relaxed in Louis’ bed wondering where he’d gone to that night.  I hoped he wouldn’t be out too late; I had slept so much better the night before wrapped in his arms and I knew as I drifted off to sleep, that I was missing the feeling already.

 

 

“Harry!  Harry, we’re all going to go hunting kay?”  I heard Liam whisper un-quietly in my ear as I swatted the loud voice away.  He shook me a bit, practically jumping on my motionless body.

“What… what?”  My groggy voice replied.  My mind quickly caught up with what they had said though as I responded again, “Yah, alright.  You can go.”  I was still able to keep my eyes closed, my brain only half working.  “Are you taking Lux?”  I spoke up before they left.

“Yah, we’re all going.  We’re going to stay out all day too, probably won’t be back till really late!”  I heard Ed exclaim from somewhere near my face.

I nodded slowly still drowning in unconsciousness.  “Yah that’s fine.  Be careful.”  I heard the twins cheer as a large amount of scurrying left me in silence again.  I rolled over onto my other side falling back to sleep as if I hadn’t even been disturbed in the first place.  

 

 

Waking up to an empty home was the weirdest sensation ever.  It was oddly silent as I budged my body; it being sore from my sleeping on it for too long.  I stretched, walking slowly towards the door leading to the main room.  It looked like the lads had put together a breakfast fruit bowl for me as I ate bits and pieces of it, opening the outside door to see what time of day it was.  It was hard to tell because the sky was an odd grey color, the sun peeking through the thick clouds only every once in a little while.   I could tell it was going to storm later as silence echoed throughout the trees and the leaves were turned upward so as to collect the impending rain.

Heading back inside, I busied myself for a few hours, tidying up the boy’s room, the time slowly passing by as I awaited Louis’ return.  He had said that he was going to be back last night, but he surely would’ve woken me if he had arrived.  Or at least would’ve said something this morning if he was leaving again…  I hoped nothing bad had happened to him.

I fixed the blankets on Josh’s bed before returning to the main room again unsure of what to do.  All my mind could think of for the past hours was Louis and him being missing.  I paced back and forth throwing the door open and peeking out every little bit to see him not there.  Cleaning up the breakfast bowls the boys had left in the sink from that morning I put them away returning to my pacing routine.

For what felt like the hundredth time I returned to the door to glance out.  The sun was sticking out of the clouds a bit where it looked to be setting.  The wind had picked up a bit too, rustling my curls.  I glanced around the area before my eyes landed on a bit of auburn hair that was all too familiar.  

“Louis?”  He didn’t seem to hear me from where he was resting on a tree, his left arm clutching at his stomach, his other propping him against the bark.   I quickly rushed over to him noticing that something was off.  “What’s wrong?”  He didn’t look up when I reached him, though he knew I was there.  The clouds above were darkening with the fading sunlight, shadows fixing themselves around us.  “Louis?”  I asked again bending down to try to look him in the eyes.  He suddenly stood up straighter, looking right into mine, a weak grin on his face.

“Don’t worry Harry.  I beat those pirate brats up real bad.”  He said trying not to wince when the wind blew into his cuts.  Louis’ gaze searched the ground as mine searched his body for bruises.  His arm was slowly bleeding and he was holding at his abdomen.  I slowly lifted his arm from where it was, feeling tingles ripple up my skin at the contact.  I quivered pulling his shirt up to see a dark purple mark there, the flesh already bruising.  I held in my breath, not wanting to gasp at the gruesome color marring his skin.  I felt his hand trail along my jaw, pulling my chin up so I could meet his beautiful blue eyes with my green ones.  “I’m okay.”  His voice came out low making my own stomach muscles tighten.  I trailed long fingers over his bruise, transfixed, noticing his slight shiver.  Standing up straight till I was at his height, I wrapped my arm around his waist so he could lean on me and I began helping him into the underground house.

Bringing him over to our bed, I put him down into a sitting position, hating when his lips flinched into a frown.  Running into the main room, I grabbed a piece of fabric, dipping it in the small stream of water trickling from the hole in the wall.  Hurrying back as quickly as I could, I lightly placed it to his cuts trying to get the dried blood off.  He winced every time I used too much pressure.

The sound of rain slowly pounded the ground above us and it seemed that we had made it inside just in time before the downpour had started.  “Louis, tell me what happened.”  I whispered softly.

He closed his eyes frowning some more as I cleared away the soiled blood.  “…Tom, Jay, Max, and the other pricks on Captain Simon’s pirate ship surrounded me, and this happened.”  He chuckled lowly.  “You should see what I did to them though.  They got it much worse than this.”  The dark look that clouded his eyes unsettled me.  Thinking back to what he had done to the fifty pirates surrounding him the day he had cut off Captain Simon’s hand made me want to cringe.

Louis noticed that I had frozen, bringing him back to his normal self as he glanced worriedly at me.

“Where did you go yesterday?”  I asked.  He glanced away at my question, then quickly back, as if not sure whether to tell me the truth or not.  I saw a light pink color coat his cheeks as he mumbled something that I couldn’t quite make out.  “What’d you say?”

“I went back to London.”  He mumbled slightly louder.  The confusion on my face must have been pretty evident as he continued, “I wanted to get you a kiss…”  My cheeks flushed, a small smile crossing my lips.  Remembering I had given him a thimble and had told him it was a kiss made me want to giggle.

“You traveled all the way back to London to find me a kiss?”  I asked as I tossed the wet, now bloodied cloth to the side, grabbing a long piece of fabric to wrap around his wound.  He nodded using his good hand to reach into his pocket.

“Here.”  He placed a cool metal thimble into my palm.  His hand lingered over mine making my heart flutter.  I didn’t know where he had gotten the thimble, but I didn’t care, the thought of him wanting to give me a ‘kiss’ had me light headed.  I closed my fist around it not wanting to lose the small gift. 

“Thank you.”  I whispered placing the item in my own pocket.  He was looking at me, his head tilted slightly to the side.  My pulse quickened as I explored his face with my eyes.  The bags under his were dark.  “Here boo, you should get to bed.”  I expressed reaching over to help him lay down.  It was unbearable to watch as I could tell his stomach bruise was probably stinging when he moved.

He winced as he lay down, “Boo?”  He questioned amused.  I nodded in response as a small smile inched its way onto his lips.  “Can I rest my head on your lap?”

I bit my lip trying not to show how much I really wanted him to.  “Of course, just wait one moment.”  I got up from the bed placing a small cloth over the firefly-light we had, darkening the room instantly.  There was still enough light for me to make out his silhouette lying on the bed as I crept back over.  It was dark though, so I walked slowly back to him, not wanting to trip on any tree roots.  I sat down leaning my back against the hard wall behind me as I let Louis rest his head on my thigh.

He closed his eyes as I gently ran my fingers through his soft auburn hair.  It felt like feathers beneath my touch as he reached one of his hands up wrapping it in mine.  I continued my caressing with the other for a bit, unsure of if he had fallen asleep or not.  Since his eyes were closed I let myself study his face in the dim light, noting how perfect it always looked.   His cheekbones were so well defined, his nose the cutest button.  His eyes, though covered at the moment were the prettiest blue I had ever seen; I could probably stare at them forever if given the opportunity.

I moved my hand from his hair tracing lightly over his features.  His breathing was so even I could feel my stomach doing flips as I lingered the pads of my fingers over his smooth lips, eventually trailing them back up to his feathery locks.  The pitter-patter of the rain droplets from above tried to relax me, though the feel of Louis heart beat kept mine thrumming at a quickened pace.  I leant down placing the lightest peck to his cheek, kissing the edge of his mouth in the process.  I knew my cheeks were growing pink from what I had just done; I stopped with my caressing his scalp, feeling breath shudder in my own lungs.

“Harry?”  He mumbled sleepily.  My fingers flexed before I placed them back in his hair.  I felt my pulse racing.

“Hmm?”  I hummed back feeling his hand squeeze mine the lightest bit. 

“What is that called?”  He questioned lightly.

“Is what?”  I asked back, though I already knew what he was talking about.

“What you just did?”  He opened his eyes, gazing up at me.  The fire-fly light made his usual light blue orbs a darker tint.  My breath caught as I tried to form a response.

I stumbled over my words.  “That was… a thimble…”  I said referring to the kiss.  He ‘Oh-ed’ turning on his side, placing his hand beneath my leg as if I really was a pillow.  Silence filled the room again as I used my now free hand, the one no longer grasped in his, to trace circles on his shoulder.

“I liked it.”  He spoke up quietly after I was sure he had fallen back asleep.  I guess I had been wrong, my lips quirking up at his statement.  He mumbled something else before I placed another light kiss to his temple whispering a goodnight in his ear.  I could feel him drift off, his breathing evening, as I leaned my head back against the wall behind me, closing my eyes.  A relaxing calm washed over me, knowing Louis was home and safe.  I loved feeling the weight of his head on my lap as I breathed out, easing myself into a soothing sleep.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit different from my usual chapters. You get to see a day in the life of the Lost Lads! Hope you like it.

**Day in the Life of the Lost Lads** [Third Person]

 

Lux spoke up, resolutely waking her brother, who everyone now knew was a very light sleeper.

“Hungry.”  She puckered, holding Mr. Snuggles tightly and looking expectantly towards Liam where he lay in his bed.  It seemed she wasn’t the only one feeling that way as the Lost Lads slowly roused, and when one was up, it was never unexpected the others would soon stir.

When, finally, they were all awake, they followed Lux’s request and ran into the main area to prepare food for their breakfast.

After eating quite quickly, the fruits they had picked out the day before, the lads left the room to parade outside in the sunlight.  Most of the children began doing their own thing much like they were used to.

Ed, quite bored as he was, decided he wanted to play with a few of Louis’ things.  He, quietly as he could, snuck back in the main room of their home seeing a small teacup perched atop the fireplace.  He had noticed it earlier, while eating his breakfast, and thought it was very pretty (which for all little boys meant he should touch it).

Grabbing the porcelain glass and taking it outside, Ed walked a bit into the woods; sitting down to study the intricate flower design swirled around the mouth of it.  He knew it was one of Louis’ most prized possessions and that he hardly ever took it out of his room.  But whenever he did Ed always loved staring at it, hoping it may give him insight into what his life would’ve been like if he didn’t live in Neverland.

Holding the fragile glass in his sticky palms, he took a seat in a grassless spot where he could easily set it down and pick it back up.  He cupped it to his ear listening, and placed it under his nose to sniff.  Putting it up to his mouth he stuck his pinky up like Louis said real gentlemen did.  The nine year old took a pretend sip.

“What’re you doing?”  Josh inquired frightening Ed who had no idea anyone had been there.  He glanced back to see Josh hanging over one of his shoulders and Niall hanging over the other.

He nearly jumped away, their proximity too close for comfort.  “Uh nothing.”  He lied trying to hide the teacup from the younger lads’ prying eyes.

“Doesn’t look like nothin’.”  Niall attested, crawling over Ed’s shoulder to get a better view of the item he held in his hands.

“It’s nothing!”  Ed retorted back, standing up to get away from the two.  He backed up slowly, though they kept advancing towards him anyways, curiosity written all over their chubby faces.  “Stop coming near me!”  He ordered getting irritated; the twins ignored his commands.

“Can we see it _pleeeeaase_?”  Josh asked nicely, holding his hands out in hopes of attaining whatever it was Ed had.  The red-head quickly shook his head.

“ _Pretty_ please?!”  Niall added in, his hands also out and ready as if that would convince Ed to hand it over.

“No wa—” He began before he was cut short; tripping backwards on a tree stump that had been behind his retreating figure.  The cup flew from his fists as he fell to the dirt, mouth dropping open before he could even hear the crash of glass hitting the ground and cracking into a million tiny pieces.

“Ed you broke it!”  Niall shouted, staring at the smashed cup.  Josh quickly clamped a hand over the blonde’s mouth.

“You talk too loud Ni!  Ed’s going to get in so much trouble if Daddy hears you…”  Josh articulated, referring to Louis.  He looked over at the ginger who was now frantically picking up the cup pieces, trying to stick them together the way they should’ve gone.  The shards just didn’t seem to be fitting making Ed’s breathing deepen, as he continually looked over his shoulder for any sight of Louis.

“Don’t tell Papa!”  He pleaded fiddling with the fragments.  Niall licked Josh’s hand to get it off of his mouth.

“Of course not Ed!  But when he finds out you’re going to get a spanking!!”  He let out a tiny giggle making Ed retaliate by throwing a piece of the glass teacup his way.  Niall quickly ducked sticking his tongue out at him in the process.

“What should we do??”  Ed asked quickly.  The other two shrugged.

“You mean what should _you_ do?”  Josh corrected.  “Niall and I did nothing.”

Ed received an agreeing head nod from the blonde, making him start to sweat, afraid of Louis’ wrath.  He had just broken one of his favorite things… he was going to be in so much trouble.

“Maybe we should ask Mommy to talk to Daddy.  Then he can calm him down so Louis won’t be as mad...”  Josh added in trying to be helpful.  Niall sat down next to the mess, crisscross applesauce, before twiddling with the ruins of the cup.  He held his face with the other hand, frowning.

“Oh…. OH I know!  There’s only one person that can fix this.”  Knowledge sparked in Ed’s eyes as he spoke up, hope in his features.  The other two glanced at him unconvinced.  “Tinker El can fix it!  She can use her magic!”  Quickly standing, he collected the small broken pieces, placing them in the pocket he had buried in his raccoon outfit.  Without another glance behind, he set off for the fairy’s home, being shadowed by the younger and only partially bored Lost twins.

\--------------------

“Whatcha doing Zayn?”   Michael asked toeing at the younger boy who seemed deep in thought, where he sat with his back to a tree.

“I want to get something for Mommy…”  He responded slowly, the gears in his brain still turning.

Michaels face immediately lit up.  “That’s a good idea Z!  I want to help!”  His pale face was aglow as he stared beseechingly at Zayn, making the other slowly nod his head.

“Okay…sure.  Thanks!”

The older of the two joined the younger on the dirt ground where they both remained, quietly thinking to themselves.  The silence didn’t last long though as Michael spoke up yet again breaking the silence Zayn had created.  “So… what are we going to get Harry?...”

He received a shrug in response, “I have no idea…”  A few more beats of silence passed between the two.

“Maybe we should ask him.”  The pale one offered, slumping his head onto his hands, staring ahead as if an idea would suddenly pop into his brain.

“No it has to be a surprise!”  Zayn retaliated quickly before Michael, too impatient to think it out, could jump up and run off to do just that.

“Hmm.  Okay…  maybe Grimmy will know!”  Before Zayn could respond Michael was yelling Grimmy’s name as loudly as he could, waiting for the boy to magically show up.

An insufficient moment passed before the eldest Lost Lad fell out of the tree above them landing on top of the other two with an audible ‘Oww.’  Leaves floated down around them from where the boy had fallen.

He rubbed gingerly at the back of his head after Michael and Zayn pushed him off of themselves.

“Uh.  You could get him flowers…”  Grimmy responded in an attempt at being helpful.

“No, we already made him a flower headband.”  Zayn pointed out after resituating himself.

“How about a painting!”  Michael exclaimed like he had just solved the problem afoot.

Zayn shook his head yet again.  “It has to be more special than that...”

“What’re you all talking about?”  Liam asked sneaking up on the three from behind.  They slowly turned around, squinting their eyes at him, wondering if they wanted to trust him with their secret task.  They truthfully didn’t care either way, but just enjoyed being difficult.  Huddling up for a few moments whispering about whether to tell Liam or not, they decided it would ‘probably’ be fine.  They broke apart to see him staring questionably at them.

“Zayn wants to get Harry a present, but doesn’t know what.”  Michael informed the brunette who nodded his head in understanding.

Zayn blushed a little bit.  “But don’t tell him!”

“I won’t, don’t worry.”  They smiled at each other as Liam made his way to the other side of the small circle.

“Yah so what should we get Mom-Dad?”  Grimmy mused, impatiently waiting for the answer to their dilemma.  Liam also sat down, placing Lux in front of him, where he’d been holding her.  She quickly toddled over to Grimmy before fully relaxing in his lap, stretching her whole self out on top of him.  He merely shrugged before poking her cheek and turning his attention back to the other problem solvers.

“Actually I’m not too sure…”  Liam responded as all four boys tried thinking of what they could get the lovely curly haired lad.

“Well what does he like?”  Grimmy asked hastily.  Liam thought for a moment.

“Flowers.”

“We already said no on that one.”  Michael informed him.

“Tacos…”

“What’s a taco?”  Zayn asked tilting his head in confusion.

“Nevermind.  Uh, singing.”

“That’s not a gift.”

“Come on Liam!  There must be something!!!”  Grimmy whined before lying down; Lux still comfortably in his lap.

“Well we used to have a pussy cat…  and Harry does like those.”  Liam scratched at his chin.

His words made the elder boys’ faces light up.  “I know where we can get a cat!”  A devilish grin crossed Grimmy’s lips.

“The bestest cat!”  Michael added as they stood up and began speed walking in the same direction.  Liam shrugged standing as well and picking up Lux who now lay on the ground from where Grimmy had knocked her off, forgetting she was on top of him.  He fixed her in the papoose he had made, making sure she was comfortable.  Lux could walk, but was much too slow for the boys so Liam, using his innovative abilities, had created a sling to put her in that hung from his neck, across his chest.

“Should we wait for Ed, Niall, and Josh?”  Zayn asked lagging behind the others, but in front of Liam and Lux.  Grimmy and Michael kept up their pace, not slowing in the slightest.

“Nope.  We’re on a mission.  No time for stopping.”  Michael informed trailing tightly behind the eldest Lad.

“Yep no time.”  They took a sharp right, walking for a bit longer.

Liam grinned, he had always wanted to go on an adventure with the Lost Lads and now he was.

\--------------------

“We’re almost there!”  Ed cheered nearing a small stream.  He took a left following the path of the water as Niall and Josh followed behind him, making sure to kick the liquid when close to it.  They picked up rocks and skipped them, scurrying up when they got too far behind the elder.

After reaching a large rock the trio took a left walking the only way Ed knew to go.  It was a longer route than was necessary, but their only option.

Niall cheered throwing his arms up in a winning gesture when they appeared out of an opening in the trees, now surrounded by pixie dust and magic galore.   “Yay we’re here!!!”  Josh and him whooped and hollered, throwing their own mini party where they stood.  

“Umm excuse me.”  Ed spoke up, running into a few fairies that were flying around.  He glanced through the expanse for a pixie he could recognize.  “Oh.  Cher!”  He called out gesturing for a brunette sprite to come over.  When she noticed him, she did, quickly appearing right in front of his face, smiling largely.  He began speaking in the fairy dialect, gesturing towards the cup he had in his pocket.  Niall and Josh decided waiting around would be too boring so went rolling about in the fairy dust that was sprinkled onto the ground.  Grabbing two sticks, the magic powder pulled them into the sky, above the tree line, where they whacked each other’s branches like swords fighters in an epic battle.

“On guard!”   Josh yelled swinging forward.

Niall dodged before attacking back.  “No, you on guard!”  He shouted as they continued thwacking each other’s wood swords.

It was only after a few more minutes of battling before Ed called for them to ‘come back down.’  They merely yelled back for him to ‘come on up.’

Having no other choice, since the twins were so stubborn, he dusted himself with fairy magic and rose up, holding Louis’ restored cup with renewed vigor.  “Look, brand new!”  Ed exclaimed, flashing the cup out, but putting it safely back in his pocket after the twins took a glance.

“Sweet!”  The boys responded still distracted until Niall’s sword was knocked from his hands and Josh fake stabbed him.  He threw his own sword off to the side when Ed began flying them towards home.  The problem was that Ed only knew the way home from the ground…

\--------------------

“Harry, Harry!”

“Mommy!!!”

“Mom-Dad we have a surprise present for you!”  The Lads yelled busting through the door to Louis’ room to see Harry and Louis talking about stuff the boys had no interest in hearing.  Louis lay in bed looking a little worse for wear, but the boys ignored that, quickly stepping up to the curly haired one.

“You have a present for me?”  Harry asked, beaming.  He looked so happy, a light blush still on his cheeks from something Louis must’ve said to him earlier.

“It was Zayn’s idea.”  Liam added in, placing Lux down by his feet.

“Yah but we helped!”  Grimmy and Michael both exclaimed trying to be louder than the other.  Harry nodded in acknowledgement turning towards the caramel skinned youth who was smiling shyly.

“I wanted to thank you.”  He added quietly, looking towards the ground.

Harry grinned.  “Thank _you_.  And you too boys.”  He glanced between them all, picking up Lux who was grabbing at his pajama bottoms.

“Kitty.”  She whispered into his ear.

He titled his head inquisitively.  “What’d you say?

“Don’t ruin it Lux!”  Michael howled as Grimmy went out into the main room to get the gift.  “Liam told us that you used to have a kitty-cat so we got you one!”  He exclaimed next, ruining the surprise himself.  Grimmy walked back in, a large grin on his face before he turned around holding up a golden and very angry looking, baby lion.  Harry’s smile twitched in uncertainty as the cub tried swiping its claws at Liam who was sitting on the bed by Louis’ feet.

Moments of hush filled the room before an exasperated tone broke the silence.  “No.”  Everyone looked to Louis.  “No, you can’t keep it.”

The boy’s faces immediately fell as Lux began chanting “kitty” over and over, clapping her tiny hands together.  A chorus of rebuttals suddenly occupied the space (“What?!”  “But Louis!”  “Daddddddddd!!!!!  You can’t say no!!!!!!!”  “We’re never allowed to have pets!”  “This is not fair!”)

“Harry, convince Daddy to let us keep her!”  Grimmy pleaded looking to him to solve their dilemma.

“Yah puh-leaseeee!”  Michael added in getting on his knees and holding his hands up in a beseeching position.

“Uh, it might not be such a good idea…”  Harry replied looking over to see Louis grimacing, eyeing the golden fuzz ball that was now making pathetic roar-like noises.

“I just wanted to get you a present…”  Zayn mouthed, his little face forming a saddened frown.  Harry quickly gave Lux to Louis who was pushing himself into a sitting position, picking up Zayn instead.  He used his index finger to tilt the child’s chin up so he would look at him.

“Oh honey, I love it.”  He said softly, kissing the boy firmly on the cheek.  “Thank you.”  Zayn gave a sheepish smile in return before bashfully playing with the necklace that hung from Harry’s neck.

The other boys, on another hand, continued arguing with Louis over being able to keep the pet while Lux distracted him, pushing her teeny hands into his cheeks as he unremittingly denied the kids.  Liam, the only one not arguing with Louis’ decision, tried staying as far from the cub as possible, not liking the way the animal particularly liked swiping its claws in his direction.

\--------------------

Discreetly putting the teacup back where he had found it, Ed and the twins turned around to see the rest of the Lost Lads parade out of Louis’ room holding a lion cub, Harry following after with Zayn in his arms.

“I’m sorry boys.”  Harry soothed, seeing their glum faces.  “Maybe next time…”  He turned towards the newcomers when he noticed them staring.  “And where have you three been?”  He questioned genuinely curious.  Ed tried keeping the suspicion off his face, still worried about getting in trouble, while the twins who were not so burdened, quickly gave up their whereabouts.

“We went to the fairy-colony!”  Niall explained trying to push Zayn out of Harry’s arms so he could get in them.

“What were you doing there?”  Louis asked following in after the rest.  Josh climbed into his arms easily, watching his brother fail at getting into Harry’s embrace.  Niall who eventually gave up came to Louis who picked him up as well, holding the two both in his arms.

“We went to visit El!”  Josh informed making Louis frown, though he had nothing to say on the subject. 

“Yah Cher said she hadn’t seen her since that morning…  What were you all doing?”  Ed added in trying to switch the conversation topic before anyone asked the reasoning for their visit.

“We wanted to get Harry a pet, but Louis said no.”   Grimmy briefed, crossing his arms.

“Whaa---“ Ed began, but before he could continue _his_ argument in favor of keeping the cub, Louis shushed him.

“Nope, no lion pet.  And I don’t want to hear another word about it!”  Ed frowned walking over to the baby animal to try to pet its wiggling body.   Louis put the twins down.  “Take it back.  And when you come home after, lunch should be ready, so don’t dilly-dally.”  The Lads scurried out, listening to Louis’ orders even if they were a bit upset that they couldn’t keep it.

 

On the trek to the lion cub’s den, the two youngest boys stumbled over a scroll someone had dropped, successfully falling on their faces.  The document was made of a thick cloth-like material wrapped around a piece of wood to keep it from wrinkling.  The rest of the Lads continued their way not realizing that two of them were no longer following.

“What is it?”  Niall asked, in his thick Irish accent.  Josh shrugged peeling the sides open.  What stared back at them were small markings, like a trail, and little pictures distinguishing where certain places were.  The marks led to a drawing of a treasure chest with piles of gold spilling out of it.  Their eyes widened.  Both clutching the map, since they couldn’t decide who should hold it, the two rushed forward to catch up with the rest of the group.

When they finally did, the crowd was standing in front of the lion mother, holding a long stick out towards it as if that would stop it from attacking.  They had dropped her baby back off, but she didn’t seem too pleased that they had taken it in the first place.

Swinging the stick at her, the lads gradually backed up, slowly, before quickly escaping the area.  They didn’t stop to hear what the twins had to say, intentionally ignoring them, until they were near enough to the home to not be in trouble if they were late.

“Guys!”  Josh bellowed finally grabbing the other’s attentions.  He held the map out in front of himself.  “I found a map.”

Niall fervently shook his head.  “No I found the map.”

The other boys ignored them, again, snatching up the diagram to see for themselves.

“The quicker we eat lunch, the quicker we can find this treasure!”  Michael suggested receiving head nods in return as Grimmy tried deciphering the whereabouts of the riches.  Ed rolled eyes at him, noticing that he had the map held upside down.

“Then… First to finish lunch is the winner!”  Grimmy roared, dropping the map, as he ran for the door, toward their awaiting meal.  All the boys guzzled down their soups as quickly as they could; even Lux realized the rush as she stuck her face in the sloshing liquid.

Harry and Louis watched on in interest, but before they could say anything about the strange behavior, Zayn stood up, spoon in hand.

“Done!”  He exclaimed before hastily sitting back down, the blood rushing towards his brain blurring his vision.  The rest of the Lads sped up their pace and finished soon after, throwing their bowls into the ‘sink’ before running outside to Harry’s warnings that they would ‘get cramps if they moved around too much.’  His words fell on deaf ears as the group pulled their map back out.

They all collectively stared at it, each trying to be the first to figure it out. 

“I think it’s this way.”  Liam finally spoke up, pointing, after minutes of blank stares from the lad’s.  The others soon agreed as the group started walking in that direction.  Niall and Josh tugged the map out of Michael’s hands wanting to hold it since ‘they had found it.’

It wasn’t until a good hour and a half away from their house did they stop again to survey their surroundings.    There was bickering among the older lad’s, but not as much as there was between the twins as they pulled the chart open again.

Josh rolled his eyes at Niall’s observations on which way he thought they should go.  “Stop being stupid; it’s that way!”  He indicated with his finger.

“I’m not _stupid_!  It’s that way.”  Niall squabbled back pointing in the completely opposite direction.    Ed grabbed the map from the two before they ripped it.

“Technically you’re both stupid.”  Grimmy added in shrugging his shoulders.  They scowled at him.  

“Shut-up Grimmy!”  The two retorted back, simultaneously, following up their exclamation with piercing glares directed at each other.

“Actually you’re both wrong.  It’s really that way.”  Ed said to the twins, shifting his gaze down a different route.  The twins crossed their arms, continuing to pout.

“Let’s go!”  Michael hurrahed, as he began hiking past where Ed was looking.  The others followed after him as the red-head tried to get in the front of the pack, justifying that he should be first since ‘he now had the map.’  Michael kept speeding up his pace though ignoring Ed’s wishes.

Grimmy, who wasn’t having any of it, tripped them both before taking his rightful position in the front as the oldest.

“You’re a twat.”  Niall spoke addressing Josh; sticking his nose in the air.

“Hey watch your language!” Liam chastised covering Lux’s ears from where she sat in her papoose in front of him.  “Who taught you that word?”  Niall looked a little guilty from being yelled at.

“Ha ha.”   Josh added in making Niall kick him in the leg.

“I heard Louis say it when he was talking to some pirates…”

Liam sighed, uncovering Lux’s ears.  “Well don’t say it again.”

“Sorry…”

“Yah don’t say it again.”  Josh mimicked trying to piss his brother off.   It was working as Niall tried kicking him again, but missed and instead decided to punch him in the arm.  Josh jumped on him in retaliation as they threw fists at each other.

Zayn scurried over pushing the two apart as best he could.  “Stop it!”  He yelled as the two separated, pouting to themselves.  “We’re trying to find treasure.   So stop fighting.”  With that he continued walking to catch up with the other boys.  The twins followed after him, now giving each other the silent treatment.

 

The eight finally stopped their walking as they neared a cave opening.

“It should be in there.”  Michael whispered pointing to the entrance.  The boys were all about to take a step out into the open field right before the entrance when a voice came out of the hollow opening, scaring them all into submission.

“Paul!”  A deep voice, with a slight blood-curdling lilt to it called.  The Lost Lad’s knew that voice.  Liam and Lux did not, but they knew whoever had it must’ve been dangerous.  Adrenaline started pumping in all of their veins as seconds of panic passed.

“Climb!”  Grimmy exclaimed as quietly as he could to the others before he scurried up the closest tree.  The others followed immediately, peeking their heads out of the leaves above to see the people walking out of the cavern.

“Yes Captain Simon?”  Another voice, much more gravelly and uncertain than the previous, came out as two people emerged from the depths of the cave.  The one who had just spoken was portly, a sort of plushy looking fellow.  The other looked much more threatening, a sharp hook coming from his right arm, an angry scowl on his face.  Everyone, even Liam, recognized him immediately as Captain Simon, the most intimidating pirate on the sea, Louis’ biggest nemesis.

“Take the treasure back to the ship with Jay and Nathan.  Send the rest of the crew out to get what we… discussed earlier.”

“The prin—” The man named Paul started before he was cut off by an angry Captain.  

“Paul!”

Liam felt Lux squirming beneath him from where he was laid out on the tree limb.  He pulled her out from underneath him squeezing her small body between him and Zayn’s.  Zayn grabbed onto the other half of her to make sure she didn’t fall as Liam leaned a bit further over to try to hear the pirates better.  Whatever they were looking for sounded important.

“Yes Captain.  Sorry Captain.”  He responded, playing with the little red hat that covered his short brown hair.  “Jay!  Nathan!”  He bellowed into the cave.  He only received grunts in response as two other dirty pirates appeared, carrying a large and very full treasure chest.  The Lost Lad’s eyes gleamed at the gold spilling out of it, but made no attempts to move since Captain Simon, the scariest pirate they ever knew stood below.  “We’re taking that back to the ship.”  He informed as the two grumbled some more.  Three more pirates came out next.

“What’re we going to do?”  The one with dark greasy hair asked.

“You’re going to go find the India--” Paul glanced back at Simon to see him glaring.  He quickly remedied the situation by stepping up real close to them, whispering their commands.  Liam leaned forward a bit more to hear what they were discussing.  It sounded important, but he couldn’t quite tell what it was.

He leaned the tiniest bit more before he felt his legs slip off the bark and he yelped, falling towards the ground; tumbling onto a dry patch of grass.   He scrunched up his face before rubbing lightly at his butt where he had landed.

“Well, well, what do we have here…?”  Liam’s eyes quickly shot open upon hearing the voice.  He sat right in front of Captain Simon and the rest of his pirates.  Liam felt faint as he quivered under their stares.  “You’re not a Lost Lad…”  The Captain mused glancing up in the trees as if to spot the boys he was referring to.  He glanced back down at Liam making his mouth dry in discomfort.

“Are you Harry Styles?”  He asked slowly, tapping his chin with a very sharp hook, the one that should’ve been where a hand would be.  Liam’s eyes went wide, wondering how the pirate knew his brother’s name.  

“Should we tie him up Captain?”  One of the uglier of the five pirates, though they were all pretty ugly, asked nearing the slighter brunette.

The Captain rolled his eyes in response.  “No!  I’m talking to him.”  The quick change of calm to angry had Liam even more frightened.  “Now, is that your name?”  He asked returning to a nicer, kinder tone when facing the boy.

Liam quickly shook his head out of fear.  “No…. Harry’s my brother…”  He responded too fearful of Captain Simon’s anger and hook to not reply.

“…Curious.”  The pirate responded, turning around and pacing a bit before facing the Styles child again, smiling.  “You can leave.  But I need you to pass on a message for me…”  He didn’t wait for Liam to respond before continuing.  “Tell your brother, that I’ll be meeting him very soon.”  With that last statement, the middle child scampered away trying to get as far as he could from the menacing pirates.  Who knew whether Simon would change his mind and skin Liam right then and there.

 

When Liam stopped running he could hear the rest of the Lost Lads catching up to him.

“Holy crap!”  Michael shouted throwing his arms in the air.

“Why’d you run?  We could’ve taken them.”  Grimmy rebuked taking deep breaths to calm his diaphragm.  Ed and Zayn both pulled faces at him.

“How _exciting_ though!  He wants you to deliver a message.”  Ed spoke up, his mood switching quickly as he laid himself out on the ground to rest from all the activity they had just participated in.

“Yeah… ‘exciting.’”  Liam responded dully before realizing in his rush to escape he had forgotten to grab Lux.  He was about to freak out and run back when he noticed Zayn holding her and he thanked the other boy profusely.

Pirates were definitely much more frightening in person than they were in the books Liam used to read and he certainly didn’t want to run into them again.

“We should probably get back.”  Zayn acknowledged bouncing Lux a bit in his arms, looking between all of the other lads.  He got a few head nods in return.

“But we didn’t get the treasure…”  Niall mumbled kicking at the ground.

Josh patted him gently on the back.  “I found a four-leaf clover… do you want it?”  He asked holding it out to his brother, their earlier fight forgotten.

Niall smiled up at him taking it from his loose grasp before ripping it in half.  “We can share it!”  Excitedly he placed the two small leaves in his pocket as Josh did the same with his.

The rest of the lads smiled; glad the two were no longer fighting.

Noticing the sun was beginning to set, the eight decided to heed Zayn’s advice and get home.

They trailed one after the other in order of oldest to youngest; tallest to shortest, like they were used to.  There were slight mumbles of conversation throughout the trip, the boys getting distracted every once in a while by wild animals they wanted to catch, but overall made pretty good time.

When the children finally got back to their underground home they were all so tired, they ‘could hardly move,’ or so they claimed.

There were murmurs of greeting as they entered, Liam completely forgetting that he had a message to deliver.  “We’re going to go to bed now…”  Zayn uttered in means of explanation as the rest of the boys nodded their heads in agreement heading towards their room.  Louis and Harry exchanged disconcerted glances.

“But you guys didn’t even have dinner yet.”  Harry pointed out tilting his head, wondering why the boys were so tired.

“We’re not hungry.”  Ed mouthed before yawning.  Louis glanced curiously between all of them before shrugging and relaxing further in his chair where his legs were propped up on the table.  Zayn quickly handed Lux over to Harry where she stared up at him, a few fingers in her mouth.

“Pirates!”  She shouted excitedly.  Harry only gave her a questioning look before watching the Lost Lads trudge their tired bodies away.

Upon resting their heads onto cushiony pillows the boys all effortlessly fell asleep.

Doing so much during their hectic day had completely exhausted them.

Louis and Harry quickly tucked each one of them in before rocking Lux into a state of unconsciousness and placing her into bed, kissing the top of her forehead.   They were glad their boys and Lux were home safe.

The two retreated towards the door listening to the quiet snores of their Lost Lads.  They shut it softly, thinking only about how lucky they were to have such precious children to call their own.


	6. Chapter 6

[Harry’s POV]

 

I fanned the fur outfits out on the string I had attached to two trees as a makeshift clothes line.  They hung limp, but now clean from who knows how long ago they were last washed.  It had been pretty easy stripping the boys out of their garments as they ran off to do whatever shenanigans they liked getting into.  The problem was getting out the dirt stains… and the food stains… and the tree sap stains… and the animal blood stains (from hunting)… and I was sort of missing my washing machine, a lot; it would’ve made the job ten times easier.

I was brought back to attention when the front door to our house was thrown open.  “Harry!”  Louis exclaimed jumping out of the entranceway and landing gingerly on his feet.  He came up behind me, hands gently pulling at my sides till I was leaning back into his chest.

He smiled down at me when I glanced up, speaking softly, "Would you like me to show you mermaid lagoon?"  It took a few seconds for his words to process before I responded with an overly excited exclamation; the beam on my face clearly enough of an answer for him to let out a light chuckle.  "Alright then, stop what you’re doing and let’s go."

I finished pinning Josh’s outfit up before turning and following after the older boy, who was walking quite quickly for so early in the day… though it was technically a bit past noon.  “Wait for me!”  I called, quickly catching up to his speedy pace.

He grinned with a roll of his eyes.  “You’re so slow Harry.”  He teased, slowing the slightest bit so we could keep pace together.

Walking a ways through the trees, we exchanged easy conversation; mostly about the adventures we had both had in our separate lives (his dealing with pirates and mine with getting high marks at school and watching over my siblings).

Loud shouts of chitter-chatter interrupted us as we turned towards the noise.  The Lost Lads were walking by, stridently discussing what would happen if a bear cub and a baby mongoose were to get into a fight.  The kids passed by another tall tree before noticing that we were standing there, watching them.

Grimmy who was leading the pack stopped dead in his tracks before waving dramatically, trying to get our attention.  He yelled out an obnoxiously endearing, ‘HIIII!’

The rest of the line who was trudging behind him hadn’t realized he was stopping as all of the boys consecutively ran into the person in front of them, smacking their faces against hard backs.

Like dominos, Niall at the end of the line fell backwards onto his rear as moans of complaint fell from their lips.  Josh rubbed at his nose after it had made direct contact with Ed’s shoulder blade.  Zayn should’ve been the one to run into Ed, but from what I could see, he wasn’t even there.

“Oh hello Louis, Harry!”  Liam spoke up with his chipper voice, gesturing with a slight wave of his arm.  Lux who was in her tiny papoose in front of him had stopped his collision, being squished between Grimmy and the slightly younger boy in the process.

Louis responded back as the group of them broke from their position to come over and crowd around us.  “What’re you all up to?” Louis questioned, jumping up to rest on a tree limb, before the boys responded with something about them hunting for hairy, or rather feathery, birds.  I was about to comment when Liam tapped on my arm stopping me.  I quickly glanced over at him as the rest of the lads continued with the conversation.

“Harry I need to talk to you...”  He mumbled, inconspicuously pulling me off to the side, a serious expression on his face.

When we were far enough away to not be overheard I turned to him, curious.  “What about?”

“Yesterday…”  He glanced around like he was about to tell me a secret.  “We ran into Captain Simon…”  My eyes widened in surprise.  At the fact that none of them were hurt and that none of them had brought it up earlier.  “But he actually wasn’t a total jerk.  At least to me…  But anyways, that’s not important.  What is, is that he told me to tell you that he’ll be meeting you very soon.”  My eyes widened even further.

I glanced around the group who at the moment was distracted listening to Louis.  What did Captain Simon want with me?  I made quick eye contact with the blue eyed boy before reverting my attention back to Liam.  “Okay, let’s just—uh keep this between us…” _I wouldn’t want Louis to be upset knowing Captain Simon wanted to meet me…_   “Captain Simon probably wasn’t serious anyways.”

“…Are you sure?”  He questioned, voice concerned.

"Yah.  It was nothing...  I’m not going to worry about it, so you shouldn’t either.”  He glanced warily at me.  “I’m just glad you’re okay.”  I mouthed, hugging him close.  He tried hiding a smile, squeezing me back before pulling away.

“Mommy, Ed’s being mean to me!!!”  Niall yelled running up to us.  He turned around only to glare at the red head.  Louis smiled when Niall called me ‘Mommy,’ snickering to himself.

I glanced in Ed’s direction to see him trying to hide a smug grin.  “No I’m not!”  He exclaimed back after I gave him the eye.  “Daddy, you know I would never do anything like that.”  He reassured, calling me by the name I had told them to address me the other day.

“Yah Dad, Ed is a saint!”  Michael added in standing up for the other boy.  Niall gave him the deadliest look I ever thought possible.

“Uh-uh, it’s not true.  They’re lying!”  He hollered; tugging on my shirt while ferociously pointing his tiny finger at the older boys.

“I know.”  I replied, trying to appease Niall’s scowling frown, before glancing back at the other two.  “Stop being mean to Niall.  Or else...”  They grimaced before nodding.

“And you better apologize!”  Niall bawled, still jibing his finger at them.  They grumbled before looking at my expression which showed them that was what I was expecting them to do.

Their faces fell in aghast.  “Lads.”  Louis warned, breaking into the conversation before they could begin arguing with me about how ‘that wasn’t fair’ or whatever nonsense they would come up with.  They turned their horrified faces in his direction.

“But Papa you can’t be serious!”  Ed exclaimed making Louis glance at him inquisitively.  His questioning look was most probably due to the fact that Ed had called him Papa instead of Daddy like he had told them to do.

“Yah, I didn’t do anything anyways.  It was all Ed!”  Michael howled back, both boys too stubborn to apologize.  Ed frowned at Michael’s change of sides while Louis continued giving his most intimidating stare down.

The two eventually sighed, turning to Niall who had his nose stuck up in a victorious gesture.  They mumbled something akin to an apology, which was good enough for the Irish lad who did nothing to try to hide the triumphant grin on his face.

“Hey Pops, when’s dinner?”   Grimmy asked, directing his question to Louis.  Louis only gazed at him quizzically, again confused by the nicknames.  He had told the boys to call him Daddy not Papa or Pops.

I grinned thinking back to when I had told them differently.  It was worth it too because Louis’ confused expression was just so cute.  “I could –uh – ask Mom-Dad if you don’t know…”  Grimmy added in, slowly glancing at me when he said the name.  I beamed, internally laughing at Louis face.

A few more moments passed before Louis squinted at me, looking taken aback, as if he just realized what I had done.  “No kids, I’m Daddy.  He’s Mommy.”  He informed them.  All of the lads just glanced between us unsure.

I was about to object when Louis spoke up again, cutting me off.  “Darling,” Louis verbalized, his tone almost menacing, “We’ve discussed this...  I’m Daddy.  You’re Mommy.”  I chuckled at his countenance, honestly not caring what the lads called me; I was merely enjoying the fact that Louis was irritated, and loving the way his eyebrows quirked adorably when he was annoyed.

“Alright, you can have your way _this_ time.”  I replied back pretending to be irritated.  The smallest of smirks crossed his face before quickly disappearing again.

“Good.  Now we’re going to be on our way again.”  He told the boys before we both started walking from the group.   “Remember I’m Daddy, Harry’s Mommy.”  He refreshed trying to wipe some of the confusion off their faces.

He turned away and began walking briskly again.  “Oh and your clothes should be dry by dinner time!”  I yelled back to the lads before receiving thanks and farewells in return.

Louis and I restarted our trek towards mermaid lagoon as I grew increasingly more excited with each step.  Ever since I was young I had always wanted to be a mermaid.  Now I was finally going to be able to see one in person!

Losing myself in thought it took me a few moments to realize Louis had finally stopped walking.  I quickly followed his example, belatedly looking up to take in my surroundings.  My mouth opened in admiration.

Green algae swayed in the ocean current, surrounded by clear sapphire waters that were the most striking blue I’d ever seen.  Purple flowers bloomed off the vine covered rocks that sat in the liquid, smelling of lilac where they were open to the sun, letting warm beams touch down on them.

Birds in the distance were chirping a lively tune as cool breezes flicked past my cheeks; the scent of salt water filling my lungs.  It seemed unreal, the magnificence of it all.

"Look!"  Louis whispered in a hushed tone nudging my side.  I glanced over to where he was gesturing, taking a few moments before I noticed what he was pointing out.  A tuft of black hair was visible past the edge of a large rock.  Being as secretive as we could, we moved back into the trees to get closer and see what the boy was doing.  A melodic laugh reached my ears as I looked back over at the voice who had made it.  Zayn was on his knees leaning forward towards a young girl who was relaxing her arms on the stone in front of his figure, gazing up into dark brown eyes. The lower half of her body was in the calming water and it swiftly clicked as I realized who she was.

This was the girl Zayn had been telling me about, the one he was crushing on.  She was absolutely stunning, with flowing white blonde hair and a smile that had Zayn’s eyes fluttering with adoration.

So this is where he had been earlier...

"Who's that?"  Louis whispered to me, eyeing Zayn's mermaid friend.  I smirked at him only mildly surprised I knew something he didn’t.

"Her names Perrie...  Zayn has a crush on her."  I informed, trying to not notice how close his face was to mine.  He looked back over at the girl an incredulous expression on his brow.

"Why didn't he tell me?"  He quipped back making me laugh a little.

"I suppose, some things you can only tell a mother."  I responded making him playfully roll his eyes.  "Here let’s give them some privacy."

We slowly backed away as Louis suggested, "We can go over there if you want to see a mermaid from up closer…"  The thought made me ecstatic.

"Yah let’s go!"

We snuck up to the shore, my bare feet burying deep in grainy sand as we reached the waters edge.  Nearing the ocean, I stared into its depths, barraged with algae when a head bobbed up out of nowhere, startling me.  A pretty girl emerged, dark purple hair dripping wet.  She looked, wide eyed up at us, grinning before relaxing in a position similar to Perrie’s.

“Louis!”  She cheered, wrinkling her nose up in a smile.  He returned one just as dazzling, as she turned towards me outstretching a silky hand that I took, shaking.  “Hello.  Who must you be?”  The girl questioned, a sweet smile to her lips.

“This is Harry.”  Louis responded for me.  I smiled shyly, in disbelief that I had just touched an actual mermaid’s hand.  “Harry, this is Jade.”  I nodded, beaming at her.  She probably thought I was creepy, but I just couldn’t wipe the elation off my face.

“Can I… Can I see your tail?”  I asked self-consciously.  She laughed, whipping the flippers of it into air flicking a few droplets of water onto my face.  She turned to her side, extending the scaly skin upwards where she rested it on a small rock just above the edge of the surface.  It glistened in the sunlight, color sparkling off of it.

Jade snickered again, this time at my expression.   I noticed Louis’ smile to be quite similar to hers, though an affectionate glint lit up his eyes.

“You can touch.”  She added in noticing me subtly inching towards the tail.  I squatted down next to it, gently moving my fingers across the bumpy surface, skidding my hand along the ridges towards the silky fin at the end.

“You’re very beautiful.”  I complimented as I backed away from her, sitting in the sand.  She thanked me flipping her tail back into the water, relaxing in front of us as Louis also took a seat next to me.

“Harry, how do you like Neverland?”  She asked facing us.

I glanced at Louis, unable to contain the small smile fighting to creep on my lips. “I love it…”  I responded back.  Jade looked between the two of us before an ‘oh’ expression lit up her features.  I looked away from Louis’ gaze.  “Does Zayn come here often?”  I asked changing the subject yet again.  She gave me a questioning look before realization dawned.

“Oh!  Zayn, yah.  He always comes to visit Perrie.  She adores him.”  We both smiled like proud mothers as a few clouds rolled across the sky, darkening the air a bit.  I wondered if it was going to rain later.

Turning back towards Jade, I was about to say something, when another mermaid popped up from the liquid, a frightened look on her face.  She abruptly leant towards her, whispering; eyeing us warily before quickly slipping away, back into the water which was slowly darkening in color.

Jade looked up at us, an expression of terror on her lips.  “Captain Simon… is at Skull Rock.”  The name seemed to be what had the mermaids so nervous.  “And so is the Indian Princess.”  She added as an afterthought. But with that piece of information told, she bolted leaving ripples of water in her wake.

I immediately turned towards Louis who was staring up at the alcove right next to mermaid lagoon; the very Skull Rock they had been talking about.  True to its name, the look of it terrified me; with dark edges, jagged and sharp bedrock protruded from the oceans depths.

 “Let’s go Harry.”  Louis ushered, though he left me to fly towards an entrance near the top of the crag.  I followed behind, beginning to climb up the rubble to the entrance he had passed through.

When I reached the opening in the rocks I peered through, looking for either the Princess or Louis.  I couldn’t see either as I registered the rest of the unlit area.  Dark water rushed around, covering slick granite.  It was shadowy in the alcove as my eyes finally found a figure, a sharp hook indicating it must’ve been Captain Simon.  I ducked lower where I was crouching, knowing he wouldn’t possibly be able to see me, but still cautious all the same.  The pirate pulled out his sword.

“Come out Louis Tomlinson!  No time for games now.”  He cheered through the cavern, echoes ringing around.  A stout man stood near to him, looking around the room as well, searching for any sign of movement.  I surveyed the area for a few more moments before I saw Danielle, the Indian Princess.  She had chains on her wrists, connected to a heavy rock near her head, hanging submerged in layers of water.

Her long dark brown hair, with streaks of sun tinted blonde running through it, was sopping wet as the water was slowly rising to her shoulders.  I ignored the anxiety of being seen by either pirate as I hastily made my way down from where I was; knowing if I wasn’t quick enough Danielle could possible die.

I slipped on the slick wet stone beneath my feet, every once in a while almost falling to my knees.  The tide was now rapidly rising, the water just under her chin now.  I snuck past a large boulder, getting closer and closer with each crawl.

Captain Simon was distracted with Louis; the other man too busy watching them, making it easy for me to slip past him unnoticed.  I reached the rock that her chains were connected to, jerking on them, trying to break them free.  She was yelling something, though I could hardly hear over the sound of the current echoing in the empty cavern.

Listening to her yells, I could tell she wasn’t even speaking my language, but I looked up in the direction she was shouting in.  Louis was perched, glancing over the ledge of a rock shouting something to the fatter pirate, unaware of his surroundings.  He had a playful smirk on his lips as I finally saw what had Danielle panicking.  Captain Simon was right behind him, sword held high.

“Louis!!  Behind you!”  I shouted, as Simons sword came flying down towards him.  He turned and pounced just in time for the sharp weapon to slash at the hard stone instead of his soft flesh.  He flew down plucking the sword off the disoriented pirate he had been talking to moments prior.

Flying back up he entertained a fight with the Captain himself, both of them slashing fervently in each other’s direction.  I turned back to the Princess whose eyes were widening as she stared at the water, now reaching her lips.

Looking back at the sword fighters I noticed I wasn’t the only one watching, the pirate from before also observing, attention only on his Captain as he cringed every time Louis threw a swing.  I crawled up the stairs towards him, sneaking up behind the man’s rumpus to see a pair of loosely hung keys on his belt.

Waiting those few seconds for him to jump again when Simon deflected another swing, I grabbed the keys, discreetly slinking away back towards Danielle.   The water was just covering her nose as I undid her chains and she sunk low into the water before coming back up, gasping for air.  Grabbing my hand I helped pull her up onto the granite where she lay spitting out the bits of water she had sucked up.

She wiped at the liquid on her face, breathing heavily.  When her diaphragm had seemed to calm, I took her hand, quickly and quietly leading her away from the other pirate, in case he decided to turn around and notice us.  She complied, easily following my lead as I helped her reach where Louis and I had entered.  I kept looking up to him, glad to see he wasn’t hurt.  He was actually smiling as if enjoying himself which made me even more nervous.  I didn’t want him to be reckless and give the Captain an opening to wound him.

“You’re getting old Simon!”  Louis bellowed, flicking his sword again at the Pirate who had a peeved snarl on his lips.

“Not this time Tomlinson.”  The Captain yelled back, swiping at Louis, who just barely dodged making me catch my breath in terror, eyes wide.  The movement made Louis face cringe in pain and I remembered the bruise he had gotten on his stomach only two days prior.  He could seriously be injured, but there was no way I could stop him or the pirate without Louis definitely getting hurt.  I looked back at Danielle who seemed just as concerned as I was.

“Captain!”  The tubby pirate called.  I wasn’t sure whether he was heard or not as Simon didn’t respond.  A few more intense moments passed before another, “Captain?!” was hollered out.

“Not NOW Paul!”

“But… the ticking.”   All fighting ceased as both Louis and the Captain froze, Lou with delight on his lips, Simon with fright.  There was only silence in the cavern except for the slapping of water on the rocks and… _ticking_?

I, like the rest of the inhabitants of the cave, looked for the source of the noise which was growing increasingly louder.  Louis took this chance to knock Simon’s sword out of his hand letting out a laugh.   The ticking grew further and Simon looked horror-struck, terror and panic written on his face.

“Sounds like dinner time Captain!”  Louis remarked to him, letting out another laugh and flying towards Danielle and I.  When my eyes landed on the source of the noise, I froze in fright.  The largest crocodile I had ever seen stared back at me, thankfully from the other side of the cave.  He was making his way towards Simon who stood paralyzed by the crocs cruel gaze and sharp teeth.

Suddenly a shriek came from the man’s mouth as he shouted for Paul to come help him.  He jumped, beginning to run from the beast, any direction he could as the croc snapped its jaws, following his every movement.

Louis tugged at my hand, dragging me out of the cavern and away from the scene as the two of us and Danielle hastily made our way out.

“What was that all about?”  I exclaimed, adrenaline still pumping.  I couldn’t believe I had just witnessed the scariest Pirate Captain of the seven seas shriek like a little girl.  Lou let out yet another boisterous laugh.

“That’s the crocodile that I fed his hand too, and it enjoyed the taste so much, he just won’t leave the Captain alone.”   He couldn’t wipe the grin off his face.  “Serves him right though.”  He added in as a secondary thought.

I looked back over at the Princess who besides being wet and a little frazzled, seemed uninjured.  I asked her, to make sure, but we didn’t speak the same language so my questioning only went so far.

Louis spoke animatedly the rest of the trip to the Indian Camp, where we were escorting Danielle, repeating bits of the battle he had shared with the infamous pirate.   It seemed to me that the two of them had somewhat of a love/hate relationship; Simon with his extreme loathing of Louis and Louis with his excessive enjoyment of fighting with the old Captain.

When we finally reached the Indian Camp, there were many Indian’s walking around looking very tense.  Some seemed about to leave, long streaks of battle makeup on their faces.  I wondered if they were supposed to be Danielle’s search party.  She quickly walked past all of them until we got to the middle of the large encampment where she ran forward throwing her arms around the most intimidating looking man there.

He had on a large feather headdress, a rough smile, and sun tinged skin.

Louis quickly followed, stepping up to the Indian Chief, extending his hand out.  They grasped each other’s forearms, squeezing gently, speaking in hushed whispers.  I wouldn’t have known what they were saying even if they spoke loudly so I stood back, watching on as the Indian camp peppered Danielle with hugs, checking her every inch for bruises or other marks.  She brushed them off, running away like the wild and free spirited girl I had once read about.  I could see why Liam had a crush on her.

Louis appeared next to me, gesturing to the Indian Chief.  The older man turned, raising his hand up in a welcoming gesture.   I quickly copied in greeting before the Chief turned away, probably off to find his unruly daughter.

“What’d he say?”  I questioned glancing back at the weathered looking man.

“He wants to throw a party for us!  For saving Danielle!”

“Tonight?”  Louis nodded to my question as we began our way back home.

“Yep.  And you should be extra excited.  The Indian Chief throws the best parties!”  He informed me, looking off as if thinking about one of those very gatherings.

“I’ve heard.”  I added, smirking.   “Michael told me.”  I responded as an answer to his unspoken question.

He nodded thoughtfully before a grin grew on his lips.  “Michael would say that…”  He mused before continuing.  “A while ago, I’m not sure how long, Michael and Ed both partied so hard they passed out.  I had to carry them home and they were so loopy, they were spouting utter nonsense!”

I laughed realizing how easy it was for me to imagine that very thing happening.  They were so silly it really wasn’t hard to picture.

 

Finally arriving back to our home, we went inside, happy to see all the lads already there.

Shrieks of welcome greeted us as we entered.  Louis called all the children to attention ready to make an announcement.  They listened intently as he informed them of the party at the Indian Camp, quickly erupting into cheers when he finished.  They jumped around making tribal animal noises, re-clothed in their now clean fur outfits.

We all headed for the door, the kids extremely excited as they marched forward talking loudly.  Louis and I hung back, a slower pace than the others, accompanied by Lux who I was carrying and Zayn who walked between Lou and I.  We were still close enough to hear the other boys though as I listened into the conversation going on in front of us.

Liam cleared his throat interrupting the discussion Grimmy was participating in next to him.  “Princess Danielle is going to be there right…?”  He took a visible gulp before continuing.  “I read about her a lot in Louis’ stories… she’s really… cool.”  He said as explanation for asking.  The Lads stared at him for a few moments in awkward silence, no one responding.

A yell from Michael finally broke the quiet, “Liam has a crush!!!”  He shouted, immediately embarrassing the other boy.

“No I don’t!”  Liam instantly defended.  None of the boys believed him.

“Ew Liam, girls are gross.”  Niall informed him with a head nod from Josh.

“Yah they have cooties… It’s disgusting.”  Josh added.  Liam bit his lip trying to think of a response.

Grimmy nippily jumped next to him.  “We’ll help you get her Liam!”  Ed smiled cheekily at the idea as Liam’s face quickly grew anxious.  “Don’t worry; she’ll be madly in love with you by the end of the night.”  He nodded, smugly.

Liam opened his mouth to retort, but no words came out.  He shut it, again reopening when he finally figured out what to say.  “Uh……..okay.”  He sounded extremely unsure, but the boys ignored that getting excited, walking off to plan some elaborate way of dealing with Danielle and Liam.  Li quickly scurried after giving them certain specifications they had to follow, telling them certain things he would ‘never ever _ever_ ’ do.

Lux, sitting in her papoose, rambled on, inaudibly speaking to herself, kicking tiny feet that bumped into my chest every once in a while.  I stroked my free hand in her shiny blonde hair as she continued to talk to her teddy bear.

Zayn tugged on my other hand, which he was holding, pulling my attention away from Lux.  He must’ve done the same for Louis who held his other palm and was also glancing at the seven year old.  “Can you swing me?”  He asked, looking between the two of us.  I grinned, exchanging glances with Louis as we both pulled our arms up, swaying Zayn into the air before he landed once more, a laugh escaping his lips.  “Again!”  He exclaimed.  We walked a few more steps before catering to his wishes, pulling the boy upwards.  He beamed, content as I held tightly to his soft, small hand.

We walked another mile before reaching the camp again, the sun slowly setting around a huge bonfire in the middle of all the tents.

Indians were already partying around the fire, chants spilling from their lips, food pouring into their mouths.

Niall and Josh immediately ripped off the top of their furry outfits letting scrawny bare chests show as they hollered, beginning to dance around with the already moving Indian group, singing and hopping around like wild creatures.

Louis made his way over to the chief who placed a steady hand on his shoulder, giving him a welcoming grin.  All the other boys followed behind as the Indian chief spoke resolutely, in English.  “Food.”  He indicated waving a hand out towards tons of pots and baskets holding delicious goodies ready to be eaten.  The boy’s eyes lit with excitement as they quickly began stuffing their faces, not needing another invitation from the Chief.  I put Lux down who quickly joined them, an excited squeal leaving her mouth.

As Lou continued speaking with the leader I walked off to the side not wanting to get in the way of the dancers.

I was soon surrounded by three pretty Indian girls.  They said some thing’s to each other before giggling and gently grabbing onto my arms and hands.  They poked at my cheeks and pulled at my curls.  The attention didn’t bother me too much; I mean they were real Indians, so any attention given made me ecstatic.  One relatively cute girl with simple braids, latched onto my arm resting her head on my shoulder.  I didn’t push her off, not wanting to be rude.  A few moments passed before she was practically shoved off.  I looked behind her to see Louis with a scowl on his lips, a glare in his eyes.

“Sorry…”  He mumbled.  He didn’t sound sorry at all.  He stepped up next to me, blocking her from reaching back over to my arm.  The two other girls who had been surrounding me started playing with my curls again; Louis started swatting at their hands.  They gawked at him, but he didn’t seem to mind as he returned the look.

“What’s wrong Lou?”  I asked, turning my full attention to him.  He kept his eyes on the Indian’s who didn’t seem to mind that I was ignoring them, unintentionally but still, ignoring them all the same.

“Nothing.”  He articulated before hooking his arm in mine, swiftly dragging me away from the three very touchy females.  He sat me down on the outskirts of the circle surrounding the bonfire, glaring at any person who tried nearing us, except for the Lads of course.

“We’ll watch Lux.  Don’t worry Liam, go for it!”  Michael cheered pushing Liam forward a bit, towards Danielle who stood near her father, at the edge of the camp.  He vigorously shook his head, blushing brightly.

“C’mon Liam!!  Don’t be such a baby!”  Grimmy announced pushing him forward some more.  He took an assertive step forward before freezing, beginning to turn around to walk back.  The boys yelled at him along with Lux who joined in the uproar of shouting, though hers was more gibberish than anything.

He glanced back at the beautiful princess as Zayn came up behind him, slipping a feather into his hand.  “You can do it…”  He mouthed nudging Liam up.

My brother glanced back at the group, who had the utmost confidence in him.  Even I was mentally cheering from the sidelines.

He froze for a few more moments, gathering the nerve he would need.  Grimmy, the impatient one he was, spoke up before Liam left.  “If you don’t do it, I will.”  That must’ve given him enough incentive as he trudged forward, stopping to the right of her, his mouth shutting tightly, his body rigid and tight.  She turned to him smiling brightly.

“Hi….”  He blushed staring at the ground.  “Would you like this… feather?”  He questioned holding out the brightly colored plume.   She beamed, before calling out to her father in excitement.  He nodded at her before observing Liam, amused.

The Indian Princess grabbed the quill from him, placing it next to the other feathers in her headband.  Liam glowed, completely infatuated.  I couldn’t keep the grin off my face as I watched the exchange, Danielle grabbing his hand, pulling him into the mess of partying Indians.  He stumbled a bit, but the enjoyment he was feeling was written all over his features.

The Lads who were also watching cheered and applauded, shouting random exclamations (‘Yah get it!’  ‘Knew you had it in you, Liam!’ ‘Girls have COOTIES!!’), before jumping into the crowd and dancing along with the rest.

I glanced to my right, to Louis, watching the flicker of the bonfire dance in his eyes.  It took him a moment before his gaze also fell on me, neither of us turning away.

I felt myself leaning forward; what felt like a magnetic attraction pulling me towards his lips.  His pretty eyes fell on my own mouth as he unconsciously licked his own, making my pulse quicken.  I really wanted to kiss him.  He languidly blinked, everything around us slowing.  Butterflies stirred in my chest as I moved towards him.

Before I had made it an inch closer, something zoomed in front of us, blocking our eye contact.  I recognized the brunette culprit immediately: Tinker-El.  She blocked my view, beginning to talk to Louis, her voice high pitched and still unrecognizable to me.

Louis’ face immediately fell into a frown.  “No Eleanor, I don’t want to talk!  You haven’t apologized to Harry yet.”  She flicked her hair, not even bothering to look my direction.  She made a ‘humph’ noise before flying off, clearly having no intentions of doing just that.  Louis looked apologetically towards me, the atmosphere ruined.  I merely shrugged before encompassing my hand in his, a blush on my cheeks for having almost kissed him.  _He didn’t even know what a kiss was!_

“It’s fine.”  I smiled, hoping to calm his irritation with the stubborn pixie.  He linked our fingers, watching on, smirking at Ed who had tripped on his way to grabbing another cob of corn.  My thudding heart began slowing to a normal pace.

“I’m glad you’re here Harry.”   Louis spoke lightly.  “In Neverland…”  He specified, grinning.  My heart started beating more rapidly again.

I nodded, agreeing.  “I’m glad I’m here too Louis.”  That seemed to satisfy him.  And it was the truth which made the words that much sweeter.  I wouldn’t have wanted to be anywhere else except for there with him; my very own Lost Lad.


	7. Chapter 7

[Harry’s POV]

 

The warmth I felt when I fell asleep was no longer surrounding me as my mind woke up to the sound of little snores.

Opening my eyes I turned over to see where Louis went and why he was no longer next to me in the bed.  My eyes drifted over the two bodies lying in between us, before meeting Louis’ blue gaze as he put a finger to his lips keeping me quiet; trying to not disturb the sleeping boys.

I looked at the pale face next to mine, placing my fingers in soft blonde hair.  Niall’s mouth was slightly ajar, tiny snuffles escaping it.  I glanced back at Louis to see his expression full of something so loving, so sweet as he watched me play with Niall’s hair.

My heart beat quickened as I stared back until he pulled the covers down a little next to him, revealing Zayn’s unconscious expression, making him chuckle.

“How did?”  I asked quietly pointing to the black haired boy.

“He sleep walks.”  Louis responded, a fond expression in his features.  He then looked to Niall as I poked the lad’s pudgy cheeks.  “And he had a nightmare last night.  Liam brought him here when he heard him crying.  Your brother really is a light sleeper…”   He mused, looking at the end of the bed.

“Liam’s here?”  I whispered glancing at where Louis was looking.  He tugged the blanket upwards to reveal Liam’s snoring face; the expression making me laugh, though I tried to keep my amusement quiet.

Laying my head back down on the pillow, Niall curled into me squishing unbelievably closer.  I quickly kissed the top of his head, looking up to catch eyes with Louis yet again.  He reached his hand out, waiting for mine, entwining our fingers together when he got it.

I slowly began zoning out, muffled snores lulling me back to sleep.

 

When I awoke, the bed was empty, the house was empty, and even I was feeling a bit empty.  I had dreamt about my parents… and I hadn’t thought about them in such a long time that it was slightly overwhelming.  I wondered if they had thought about me and my siblings; if they missed us.

Lying in bed, I scrunched the blankets up, wondering if my mother was at work today and if my father would be cooking dinner like he often did on the weekends…  Was it a weekend?  I wouldn’t even know, but a heavy feeling sat in the pit of my stomach.  I missed my mum and dad.  I missed them a lot, and it seemed like I had only just realized it now, making me feel quite awful.  I hadn’t thought about them the slightest and now guilt was going to weigh me down.

 

Sitting up, I tossed the blankets aside, not bothering to fold them as I walked out into the main room.  It was messy and smelt of spilt porridge.  I began cleaning up the table feeling the bitter taste of worry sit on my tongue.  Did Liam and Lux miss the parents?  Did they even remember them, or had they forgotten too?

Are the parents missing us…?  That thought kept playing in the back of my mind.

Putting the now clean bowls back in their rightful place I yawned for the sake of yawning, not feeling tired in the least, trekking outside to see the sun blazing down.

Taking a seat by a nearby tree I wondered what everyone else was up to.  I also realized I was quite bored and wished I had something to read.  If I was back in my room I’d have so many books to look at…

Maybe Louis would have a book somewhere.  He had a teacup after all, and other random things he got from England.

I walked back inside, checking every inch of our room, leafing through random maps with treasures drawn on them.

I sighed in defeat when I realized that no reading was to come.

 

Making my way outside I could hear shrieks and scuffling of feet.

“Harry!  Harry!”  The twins called running to me, carrying a very upset Lux with them.

“What happened?”  I questioned, concern rushing through my voice.

“Nothing.  She just started crying.”  Josh informed me as Niall nodded and Lux continued to wail.

“And she keeps saying mommy!” Niall added.

“…I’m not her mommy though…”  I informed them, guilt seeping into me again.  So I wasn’t the only one missing the parents...

Niall and Josh nodded, still looking quite distressed.  “We know, but you’re the only mommy _we_ know.”  They quickly passed her into my arms before scurrying off to get away from the tiny girl’s tragic screams.

“Shush, shush, Lux.”  I hummed to her, bouncing her up and down in my arms, turning to go back inside.  “It’s okay…  Don’t cry.”

She continued, crying for our mother, only making me want to cry with her after a while.

I started patting her back, walking around the parameter of the room, cooing at her.  She continued shrieking, tears falling from her puffy eyes.

I couldn’t think of any way to get her to stop.  I felt so bad that all I could think was to apologize.  “I’m sorry Lux.  I’m so sorry for taking you away from the parents...”  I continued my pace, walking with her into the boy’s room to grab Mr. Snuggles.

Giving her the plush teddy she held him tight, her cries diminishing only the slightest bit.  “We’ll go home.  We will Lux.  I’m so sorry.  Please stop crying…”  Her yells quieted with each of my reassurances.  “We’ll go home and see mommy, yah?  Does that sound alright?”  That caught her attention.  She looked up at me, sniffling, her mouth finally shut, registering my words.  “We’ll go see mommy.”   I repeated, nodding my head.

She slowly nodded back, holding tighter to her teddy as I wrapped my arms around her frame, continuing to pace.  I had just promised my sister I would take her home…  I wanted to go too; but I’d have to tell Louis… and I wasn’t quite sure how he would take the news.

 

Louis entered the house, throwing the door wide open behind him.  When he caught site of the tears running down Lux’ face, he walked up to us, concern filling his features.

“What’s wrong?”  He asked me though he kept his eyes on her before wiping away at the tear streaks on her face.  She wriggled under his touch opening her arms out for him.  I passed her to Louis before sitting down in the nearest chair, letting out a heavy sigh.

“She misses the parents.”

He stilled at my words, so slightly I almost didn’t notice.  He began pacing like I had, patting gently at her back.  She rested her head on his shoulder, beginning to suck on her thumb, Mr. Snuggles squished between them.

“Oh…”  He responded dumbly.

There was a silence in the room as I could see Lux closing her eyes, being soothed to sleep.

“I promised her I’d take her home.”  I added in tapping my fingers against the table.  He repeated the same response he had before.  “I mean, I miss my parents too.”

He looked at me in surprise.  “You do?”  He sounded baffled.  I slowly nodded feeling like he was judging me for being such a mamma’s boy.  “But I don’t understand Harry.  Why do you even need your parents?  Adults are stupid, anyways...”  He muttered continuing his step.  I could tell Lux was asleep as I stared at him trying to keep my composure.  “I mean, why would they even decide to grow up?”

I bit the inside of my cheek, not wanting to start an argument with him though I pretty much disagreed with everything he had just said.

“I mean I can understand why Lux would miss them.   She is a baby after all.”  He reasoned.

My mouth dropped.  Wouldn’t that mean I was _also_ a baby for missing my parents?  I didn’t respond and he didn’t look over at me to see my irritation.  I don’t think he even knew his words had pissed me off.   He walked towards the kid’s room.

“I’m going to put her to bed.”  He informed me, before exiting with Lux still snuggled in his arms.

I was about to protest to what Louis had said when all the boys burst in at the same time Louis’ exited their room.

“Louis, can you tell us another story tonight?”  Ed questioned with agreements from the other boys. 

Louis smiled, though he shook his head.  “Sorry lads.  I have some adventuring to do.”  They frowned in disappointment before starting up more conversations with each other.  I just stared at him, where he stood all happy and carefree.  It was unfair that I had to be sad with regret and a bit annoyed with his lack of sympathy.

But I guess it wasn’t his fault… He hadn’t had a very good parent-child relationship in the first place…

               

With a last farewell, he stalked out as the rest of the boys crowded around the table scheming up things they could do to pass the time.

Still feeling a bit put off from my conversation with Louis, I walked back into his room, throwing myself face down into the pillows.

I was being ridiculous.  It wasn’t like Louis had meant to hurt my feelings or anger me…

Moments, minutes even, passed as I fumed in silence.  A dull knock on the door to the outside of the house startled me as I begrudgingly got up, moving my way towards it.  It wasn’t the bedroom door that was knocked on so I headed towards the main door, opening it to see no one there.  I glanced around the grassy area observing a few butterflies fluttering about, pollinating flowers.

My brows furrowed before I glanced down at the ground, seeing a crisp piece of parchment staring up at me, my name scripted on the top in large cursive ink.  Picking up the thick paper I brought it in, sitting at one of the wooden chairs before opening it, flicking my eyes over the words.

 

_Dearest Harry Styles,_

_It would be of my utmost pleasure if you could attend a dinner I am throwing in your honor._

_I know Louis Tomlinson and I are not on the best of terms, but I would like to discuss with you his wellbeing.  He doesn’t seem to want to listen when I try to help him; our fights are mere misunderstanding I can assure you…_

_If you could please venture towards mermaid lagoon, an escort will lead you the rest of the way to my ship.  This meeting is so I can officially meet you, since I’ve heard so many great things, and that we may discuss our darling Louis.  I do hope you will attend._

_Yours truly,_

_Captain Simon Cowell_

_And if you do decide not to come, we will just have to arrange another time, for I have very important information I would like to speak with you about.  Have a splendid afternoon._

 

He seemed charming enough… not like the pirate I had read about in the books.  I wondered whether I should tell Louis about the meeting; or whether I should even go at all.

Well I was a little irritated with him at the moment, and the Captain didn’t sound like he had any ill content; had only said he wanted to talk…  Even saying he had something important to speak with me about.

Checking in the boy’s room to see them having a pillow fight I made up my mind.  I walked outside; starting to head in the direction Louis had shown me was the way to Mermaid Lagoon.

I kept up a brisk pace, feeling the sun’s rays sinking lower in the sky.  It was still plenty bright, but in a few hours would be as dark as night.

 

“Hello.”  A voice greeted.  I quickly turned towards the gruff man, noticing it was the same guy from earlier that I had seen at Skull Rock with Simon.  Simon had called him Paul.

“Hello…”  I responded back, hoping I had made the right choice in coming.  This pirate didn’t seem half bad though as he led the way, speaking cordially with me.  He even seemed mildly kind at times.  I followed his steps passed Skull Rock a ways till we reached the shore where a small canoe waded.

We got in as Paul began paddling it away from the beach towards a large ship that appeared out of the horizon when we turned past a stretch of land blocking it from view.  My mouth fell open at the size and regality of it all.  Tall mahogany spokes stood up from the deck, displaying fabrics of black flapping with the breeze.  I could hear cheers and jaunts coming from somewhere within as a ladder was hanging off the side for us.  I climbed up first, to the directions of Paul, and slid onto the empty deck. 

The sides of the ship were surrounded by intricate wooden bars adding to the beauty of it; a few barrels lying around along with rope and buckets.  Normal pirate things I supposed.

“This way Harry.”  Paul spoke up, surprising me.  I hadn’t realized he knew my name… though it would only make sense.  I followed his large steps towards the main area, to the left where a door stood.  I could hear cackles of laughter coming from a gate farther right where I assumed the rest of the crew was.

Paul gave a few sharp knocks to the door before opening it, allowing me entrance.

It took me a few moments before I convinced myself to go in.  There was really no backing out of it now; I was already on the Captain’s ship.  He could do whatever he wanted to me and no one would know… I probably should’ve told Louis…

“Mr. Harry Styles…”  I turned towards the voice, resting my eyes on the dreaded pirate; who was much scarier up close than he had been back at Skull Rock.  I took an inaudible gulp as he stuck out a hand gesturing towards something.  I followed his movement noticing a large table in the middle of the room, half covered with food, the other half covered with scrolls, papers, and books.  “Have a seat.  Have some food, enjoy yourself.”  He added smiling at me.  The smile was meant to be friendly and relaxing, but it had my nerves on edge.  I did what he said.  “I’m so very glad you decided to come.”  He spoke before walking over to a side table and pouring himself some, what I would assume, was rum.  I merely nodded in response.

“How did you know where we live?”  I quickly asked thinking back to the letter he had sent me.

“Tinker El told me… pleasant one, isn’t she?”  He mused, though I couldn’t tell whether he was joking or being serious.  “Well, I didn’t want to frighten you.  And seeing as Louis and I aren’t on… cordial terms, it seemed only right for me to not invade in his home.”  I nodded slowly, understanding where he was coming from.  If Louis had been there, he would’ve definitely forbid me from coming.

He and Simon probably would’ve broken out into a fight too.

“You said you wanted to discuss Louis’ wellbeing?”  I asked quietly feeling very uncomfortable.  I was starting to regret my decision in coming even more.

“Ah yes I did say that didn’t I?  Well it’s not just Louis wellbeing I’m concerned with.  It’s yours as well.”  He took a slow intake of air.  “How do you like Neverland?”

I didn’t respond for a few moments, confused by his question that seemed oddly out of place coming from his mouth.  “Uh—I like it here.”  I replied, stumbling a bit over my words.

He looked thoughtful for a moment.  “Don’t you miss London?”

“What?  Oh…”  His words sunk in.  I thought about the way the people bustled about, on the clustered streets, enjoying their families, enjoying their sweet time.  My mind wandered to the path I always took on my way to and from school, the city alive with noise and laughter.

It was really different from here, where quiet hid behind every tree and under every rock.

I did miss London...

“Some parts…”  I responded vaguely.

“Your parents?”  He added in giving me no room for thought.

“Ye-es.”  I stuttered out, starting to feel like a child in his presence.

“Oh dear…”  He mused taking another sip of his drink.  I twiddled my fingers together, shuffling my feet.  “They probably miss you deeply.”  His words made my heart ache.  I did miss them and they probably missed us too...  How could I have taken my siblings away from them without even saying anything?

The frown on my face was probably explanation enough as he continued.  “What’s stopping you from going back to them?”  His voice was gentle, almost nice in its delivery.  He just stared at me, dark brown eyes squinted, a frown on his face as he looked almost sad for me.

“…Louis…”  I mouthed, so quietly I knew he wouldn’t be able to hear.  He tilted his head, urging me on.  I said the boy’s name louder this time, keeping my eyes focused on the ground.

Minutes of silence passed between us as Simon approached me; waiting for me to look up and meet his gaze.

“Don’t you understand?”  He questioned, trailing the curved part of his hook across the wood table in front of me while walking around its edge.  His voice was soothing, soft.  “You’re not _supposed_ to be together, can’t really.”  I stared blankly at him trying to not comprehend his words.  They bit at the back of my heart all the same though.  “Louis will never age; he has his Lost Lads, his _Eleanor_.  He doesn’t need you and you know it’d be best for your siblings to see their mother and father again.  Their real mother and father.”  He clarified beginning to shine his silver hook on a rag, as if he didn’t care his words were slowly tearing my world apart.

“But… he said he liked me.”  I defended weakly, thinking back to when he had shown me the fairy’s home.

“He likes the Lost Lads too.  What makes you think you’re so special?”  I thought back to when Louis had said those words to me.  I thought they had meant a bit more than what Simon was making them out to be… but what if I had read too far into them and the Captain was right.  Was what I had been feeling so one-sided?

I knew there was no other choice; I knew I had to go back, for my parents and my siblings… but how true were Captain Simon’s words?    Did Louis really not need me?  Or possibly, not even want me?


	8. Chapter 8

[Harry’s POV]

 

When I had made it back to the underground home, sitting alone on Louis’ bed, I continued mulling over the conversation I had, had with Captain Simon.  I didn’t want to leave Neverland… I _really_ didn’t.

The other lads were playing in their room, their squeals of enjoyment hardly made me feel any better as I pondered my limited options and how I would tell Louis.  I didn’t want to leave him, but I wasn’t sure whether the sentiment was the same for him.

I was zoning out when Louis appeared in the doorway startling me into attention.  I didn’t budge from where I was sitting, legs tucked under my chin though I was doing a pretty awful job at hiding my insecurities from appearing in the scowl on my face.

He cleared his throat, his own smile falling from his lips.  “What’s wrong Hazza…?”

“I, uh-“  Glancing away, I could still feel his curious look on me.  Taking a deep breath, I continued with the inevitable.  “I’m going to go home, back to London.”

He stared at me as I waited with baited breath.

“You don’t want to stay with me?”  He questioned after a long moment.  His voice was steady, reserved; and I couldn’t bring myself to look at him.

I wanted to stay with him forever…  I _would_ stay with him forever; but I couldn’t do that to my siblings, or my parents.

“I, well, I do, but I don’t know… I think it’d be best if I went back… I mean, that’s what Captain Simon—” I froze my speech; my eyes bugging out as I felt the tension in the room hit the roof.  I hadn’t meant to bring up the pirate at all…

“Captain Simon?”  He questioned; words heavy.  I didn’t dare look up to meet his gaze.  Instead I nodded, slowly, feeling his glare burning holes in the side of my head.

“He invited me to dinner yesterday… said he just wanted to talk…  It’s not what you think, really.  I only went because I wanted—I, uh.”  Trying to explain myself had me stumbling over my words.  I couldn’t just tell Louis part of the reason I went was because I was mad at him.  His hands were clenched into fists, cheeks flushed.

Turning his back to me, he took a few steps away, before letting out a deep breath. “…Just leave Harry...  I won’t keep you here.”  And without another word he walked out of the room, leaving me alone with my thoughts, my self-loathing, and my big fat mouth.  I shouldn’t have brought up the freaking pirate.

And in all honesty, I probably shouldn’t have even gone to see the Captain.

But now… now I had just screwed it all up; I had just pissed Louis off.  And because of that he hadn’t even put up a fight.  I guess he really didn’t care if I left...  ‘He doesn’t need you.’  Captain Simon’s words replayed in the back of my mind.  I shoved them away, angry at myself.  If only I hadn’t said anything about the pirate I maybe would’ve known if Louis wanted me to stay or not…

That was probably the part that bothered me the most.  He didn’t tell me to stay, like I hoped he would.  But I guess it was my fault for making him mad…  I was an idiot.

My heart clenched as I fell back onto the pillows behind me.  Disbelief swirled within my stomach; I would be returning to my parents… and would probably never see Louis ever again…

Snuffling a bit, wiping my nose with the back of my hand, I stared up at the dirt ceiling.  I was tired, and feeling emotional.  And everything that had just happened and that had transpired the day before kept clouding my mind.

I couldn’t stop thinking about my parents or London, which just seemed to make everything worse.

I was alone, homesick, suddenly crying, and so, so confused.  Louis left and was angry at me.  _Maybe he won’t even visit me when I leave_... the thought made my stomach twist; tears dripping down my cheeks.  _Was Louis so upset with me that he would ignore me now?_   I wiped at the wetness on my face, trying to pretend that I wasn’t so pathetic.

 

 

"Liam, we can't stay here anymore."  He studied me with a steady gaze, where we sat next to each other on Louis’ bed.  "Lux needs a mother...  You need a real father."  I took a pause, trying to gauge his reaction.  He kept his face unreadable as I continued, "I can't let you two not grow up and I can't keep you away from our parents either..."

There was another long moment of silence before Liam turned his face away in thought.  "Ok Harry.  But... What about Louis?"  My nose sniffled without permission as I tried hiding my slightly pink eyes.  Liam had probably already noticed their puffiness from when I had been crying earlier.

He moved over wrapping an arm around my shoulders, where I tucked my face back into my knees; trying to not bawl like a baby again.

"Louis will be fine without us..." I finally responded after regaining what little composure I had; my voice bitter.

"...Will you be?"

I fidgeted under his arm’s weight, removing myself from his embrace.  "This isn't about me and Louis.  This is about you and Lux, and our parents."

 "Lux and I can go back...  But we just want you to be happy."  He stood up putting a gentle hand on my arm.  “Let’s go out, I’ll boil some water for you.  You can add like, spices to it or something, sorta like tea.”

I nodded to his idea, knowing I needed to calm myself.  It was the _waiting_ to leave Neverland _forever_ that would be the worst, because I already knew how much I would miss Louis and everything about him; and thinking about never seeing my Lost Lads again made me want to cry until I was a withering, achy mess on the floor.

When Liam pushed the door open, a mass scurrying of Lads could be seen and heard as they tried to slam their bums into the dining room chairs as quickly as they could, acting as if they hadn’t just overheard our conversation.  My stomach dropped; the fireplace the only illumination in the room, the Lads all sitting quietly, for once, some holding mugs of hot water, others just staring off into space.  We walked further in, Liam going over to the teakettle near the hearth to pour us some drinks as I moved towards the table, Niall looking up at me with droopy eyes.

“You’re not really going to leave Mommy, are you?”  His whispered, close to tears.  I fiddled with the hem of my shirt, hoping he wouldn’t start crying.  I wasn’t sure I’d be able to handle it if he did. 

None of the other boys spoke up, their ears perked, listening for my answer.  Clearing my throat, I stared at the table, not wanting to see any of their reactions.  “I…Yah…  We’re going to go back to London.”

A few moments of silence filtered through the room, before all commotion broke loose.  The twins burst into tears, Grimmy and Michael stood on their chairs, arguing at me, their voices unable to carry over Ed who was trying to get Liam to disagree with my decision.  Lux started crying because of the unexpected surge of loudness in the home and Zayn just sat in his chair staring dejectedly at nothing, a frown encompassing his whole face.

“Shh, please.”  I called, trying to hush the Lads, picking Lux up to calm her.  The noise didn’t subside as I passed my sister to Liam who was still talking back to Ed, standing up for me.  I was so happy he had my back, but I knew he didn’t want to leave everyone either.

Leaning down in between Niall and Josh’s chairs, I began wiping at their tears, quieting their sobs.

“But, what are we going to do without a mommy?”  Josh asked, nose running, cheeks stained with the salty liquid coming from his eyes.

I pulled the two of them into my arms, promising that I’d always be their mommy, and that I’d come back again to see them; though I wasn’t quite sure I’d be able to unless Louis wanted that.  I hoped Louis wanted that...

“Mom-Dad, you can’t leave.  You just can’t!”  Grimmy’s voice finally carried as Liam and Ed glared at each other, now in a silent quarrel.  Liam had even managed to quiet Lux’s cries where she was cradled in his arms.

“Yah, Dad, really.”  Michael added in a pleading voice.  “Please don’t leave.”

I didn’t want to, but I had to act like a grownup and do the right thing even if it wasn’t what I wanted.  “We have to…  I’m sorry.”  My voice was quiet, if I spoke any louder I felt like I would also break into sobs, again.  I was going to miss each one of them so unbelievably much.

 

I was still holding onto Niall and Josh as they rubbed their teary faces onto my shoulders where they tucked their heads, crying silently now.  I pulled away to kiss them both on the foreheads as they wailed.  “Please mommy… please.”

Grimmy and Michael finally got off the table, sitting back in their chairs, knowing their arguments weren’t going to convince me of changing my decision.  They pouted, their mouths closed tight; Grimmy’s arms crossed, Michael hiding his face in his hands.

“Please mommy.  Don’t leave us.”  Niall bawled again.

I pulled out of their arms, rubbing both children lightly on the back as they clung to each other, crying together, holding tight.

I stood, noticing Zayn still looking ahead, bottom lip trembling, his tiny hands held tight to his mug.  Slipping the drink out of his palms, I pulled him into my lap, sitting where he’d just been.

He immediately started crying like the other two as I patted gently at his back, wanting to weep with him.

“I love you boys so much.  I just want you to know I will never forget any one of you…”  I could feel Zayn’s tears soaking through my shirt.  “And maybe you can convince Louis to bring you all to my house in London.”  I tried to make my voice sound chipper, but it was off and it had cracked when I said Louis’ name.  I hoped none of them noticed.

Reaching my hand out, I grabbed Ed’s, squeezing lightly as he held mine back, fingers warm in my palm.

“We’re leaving tomorrow...”  I’d thought about it a lot when I’d been alone after Louis had walked out, and the sooner my siblings and I left Neverland, the better; because long goodbyes were the worst.  “I hope you all will see us off?”  I asked softly, waiting for a response.

Grimmy still had anger on his brow, though he nodded, stiffly; Michael nodded as well before dropping himself to the floor, hands still covering his face as he scrunched up into a ball.

It took me a few minutes to gather myself as I stood, holding Zayn, resting his weight on my hip.  Ed held his hand close to his chest when I let it go.

“I’ll be back out to tuck you all in…”  I spoke up quietly, the crackling of the fire and the twins continued sniffles the only noise in the room.  I walked over to the two youngest boys, taking both their tiny hands in one of mine, gently guiding them towards their room.  Zayn only buried his head further into my shoulder.  “Come on.  You boys first.”

I let go of the twin’s to put Zayn down in his bed.  He wouldn’t let go from where his arms were wrapped around my neck.  “Let go sweetie.  It’s okay…”  I tried soothing, releasing his grip before pulling the blanket up to his tear stained cheeks.  I wiped the wet from under his eyes. “I love you Zayn.”  Kissing the top of his forehead, I stroked his cheek as he snuffled.  “I saw you with Perrie the other day.  And I think she is absolutely beautiful.  She’s lucky to have you in her life.”  I tried grinning down at him as he let a sad smile grace his lips.  Stopping my caressing, I slowly pulled away, turning towards the other two who were staring back at me, hopelessly.

Helping them to their own beds, I lifted Niall up into his bunk, tucking him in, shoving the sheets underneath his body so he would be cocooned in them, like he liked, before pecking him on the forehead.

“I love you Niall.  Take good care of your brother.”

He nodded solemnly as I bent down to reach Josh, placing a soft kiss on his forehead as well, applying the same tuck-in routine as I had Niall.  “And you too, take care of your brother...  I love you Josh.”  He mumbled an ‘I love you’ back before sinking lower into his sheets.

“I’ll never forget you Mommy.”  Niall spoke up as I began walking to the main room.  I smiled back to him, hating that I was making them all sad.

Liam passed me on the way out as he returned Lux to her bed and he crawled into his own, a bit upset himself; I’d have to make sure to make him lots of baked goods when we got home to London.

Back in the main room, the other three lads were still in the same positions I had left them in.

“C’mon then...”  I walked over to where Michael was still on the ground, squatting down to tap him on the side, hoping to get a response.  He only scrunched up further, mumbling something incoherent.

“Don’t be difficult babe.”  I added softly.

He didn’t respond so, in protest, I bent down, lifting his fur a bit to blow a raspberry onto the side of his stomach.  He squealed, jumping out of my reach.

He didn’t smile at me, still upset that I was leaving, but he took my hand when I offered it to him.  Also grabbing Ed’s, I led them into the bedroom, tucking them both in.  With kisses to their cheeks, I went back out to get Grimmy who was sitting, still angrily, glaring ahead.

I sat in the chair next to him, waiting for a few tense moments.  “Let’s go grumpy, it’s bed time.”

“I don’t know why you want to leave.”  He finally spoke up looking to me for an answer.

I let out a heavy sigh, running my hand through my hair.  I didn’t want to leave…  “I miss my parents.”  I responded instead looking at the twelve year old.

His expression didn’t change, though he did soften his gaze.  “Does Louis know?”

“That I’m leaving?”  I waited for verification, but got nothing, so I continued; trying not to sound bitter like I had before.  “Yes, he does.”

Grimmy glanced at the table again.  “I don’t believe you.”  I couldn’t help but let out a scoff.  “He wouldn’t let you leave so easily.”

And that sentence actually hurt.  I stared down at the perceptive boy.  “Why do you think that?”

“Cos’ I’ve known Louis the longest and I know he wouldn’t.”

Grimmy seemed so adamant and I didn’t want to ruin it, but the Lad should know the truth so I shrugged.  “I’m sorry Grimmy.  But I’m still leaving...  And Louis hasn’t tried to stop me...”  He sulked at me again as I stood.  “You’re a very mature boy, and a sweetheart.  Now let me tuck you in because I want to… and I will miss you.”  I added a few seconds later.  He finally gave, standing before telling me he’d race me to his bunk.

I accepted, letting him win by a few steps as I tossed the blankets all over his body, leaving kisses on his face and pinches on his cheeks.

Walking towards the door, I called out a quiet, “I’ll see you all tomorrow morning, okay?”

I received groans and a few sniffles in response.  “I love you all.”  I added lastly, before leaving the abnormally noiseless room.  And it was true; I really did love them all.

 

Lying in bed, I waited for Louis to come home; wondering if he would or if he was still too upset with me.  I really hoped he wasn’t; I didn’t want to spend our last night together, alone…

 

It was late... very late when the door creaked opened and was shut softly behind the boy.  He jumped to the other side of the bed as me, pulling the blankets over himself, breath quiet and even.  It was dark, but after a few moments of staying silent I slowly sat up, pulling the covers up the slightest to shield me from the cold.

Louis moved a bit, finally sitting up, as I looked to him in the dark of the room, expression covered in shadows.  And I knew I was going to sound desperate; I was… because I didn’t want to have to say goodbye to him.  “Will you come back with me Louis… to London?”

A small increment of hope sat in my chest as I waited and a few minutes passed as if he was actually thinking about it, though he didn’t look my way at all, keeping his eyes glued straight ahead. 

When he finally spoke with a shake of his head, my heart fell, “No Harry.  I’m sorry, but I belong in Neverland.”  I nodded though, biting back how upset I was, feelings of sadness refueling me again as I paused, waiting for him to look at me.

When he didn’t, I sunk back down, feeling completely off.  He really didn’t want me...  I had messed up by going to see Simon, and now I would never see Louis again after tomorrow.

He situated himself, much like me, after a few moments of hesitation.  When he lay down there was a space between us, like there had been the very first time we had slept in the same bed.   And I was hoping, still hoping, that he would pull me into his arms again.  The thought alone made me laugh though.   There was no way that would happen.  He was done with me.

Closing my eyes tight, I tried evening my breaths, tried shutting off my brain so I could sleep and get the day over with.  It must’ve been hours before my mind finally surrendered, allowing me to fall into the most restless and unpleasant sleep I’d ever had.

 

I took in a deep breath, a familiar scent washing over me, as I slowly began to ease awake.  It was warm where I was, as I felt arms around me and I paused in my attempts to move myself.  I relaxed back down into his embrace, taking in the feeling.  Louis was holding me and I knew he wasn't asleep, much like I wasn’t.  I could feel a gentle hand playing with the curls at the back of my head, soft even breaths filling the small space between us.

 "Louis?"  My voice was so quiet, almost silent; yet it was oddly jarring in the noiseless room.  I could feel his heartbeat quicken as I kept my hand gently pressed to his chest.  My head was curled into his shoulder, the warmth of his skin keeping my body content, my emotions not having so similar of an outcome.

 His hand stalled, but he didn't respond as I tilted my head up to meet his gaze.  His blue eyes were bright, like the stars veiled in the night, even in the minimum light surrounding us that the firefly light gave off.  We laid like that for a while just watching, taking in each other's features, as if it was the last time we ever would.

 "Louis... I'm going to miss you."  I let out in a soft whisper.  His lips parted, but he still didn't respond.  He closed them, as they bent into an uneasy frown; my chest flickering with heart ache.  I guess he really didn't care about me…

 I pulled out of his arms and his lingering touch, sitting up in the bed to face the wall farthest from him, not wanting to see the beautiful boy I would miss so much; who didn’t feel the same as I did.  Neither of us spoke as I tried holding in my heartbreak.

 There was a faint knock on the door. "We're ready to go Harry."  Liam spoke up, his voice a bit muffled.  “We’ll be outside, whenever you’re ready.”

 I replied with an, "Okay," though it was anything but.  I could hear him walk away as the room again filled with a deafening silence and Louis moved to sit up on the bed as if he was wondering what Liam had meant by being ready to go.  I didn’t look back at him, feeling my eyes sting.

I suppose it didn’t matter that Louis hadn’t known we were leaving today; he wouldn’t miss me.  But I couldn’t leave like that; without any closure.   "Before I go..."  I murmured into the hush, cutting through the thick air in the room.  "Can I...give you... As a last goodbye.”  I took in a shaky breath.  “Can I give you a thimble...?" I stared at the dirt covered floor, feeling Louis’ gaze on my back.

I bit my lip waiting for a rejection.  Moments passed.  I clenched my hands together, feeling a well of hopelessness churn my insides.  I shuffled to get up to leave, tears nearly there, before a soft "Alright," stopped me in my tracks, making shivers travel up my spine.

 I let his mumbled response sink in, trying to memorize his pretty voice as I turned to face him,  holding in my breath, biting lightly on my bottom lip.  Louis looked so beautiful in the golden hue of light, his cheeks pink, his lips slightly parted, his eyes swirling with unspoken words.

Leaning in, looking down at those perfect pink lips that I’d wanted since the first time meeting him, I glanced up to meet his gaze.  He stared longingly at me as I slowly tilted my head, our noses brushing as less than an inch separated our mouths from meeting.

The soft encounter of his lips sweeping against mine had my pulse quickening, my breath coming out in a rush as I leaned in further until his flawless mouth was pressed seamlessly to mine.

He added pressure to the kiss, tilting to get a better angle.  My heart was beating so quickly, the feeling so foreign, so welcome.  It was perfect, his mouth so soft against my own; I kept my eyes shut trying to ingrain the kiss into my memory.

I wished I didn’t have to pull away; but I did…I had to leave; this was too much torture; so much for closure.

Backing from the older boy, the sensation on my lips lingered as he reached up to touch lightly at his own, mouth ajar, eyes so blue.

The blush on my cheeks was easy to hide in the dark room as I stared at him for the last time.  “Good bye Louis.”  I whispered, moving away from him further, away from his precious lips and warm arms.

I walked towards the door, leaving Louis Tomlinson sitting wordless on his bed; the boy who had shown up out of nowhere and with a simple question, ‘come to Neverland with me?’, had changed my life for forever.

Going back to London would be so much more painful than I thought.

 

I could feel the tears again, but I pushed them back as I slowly closed the door behind me taking in a much needed inhale.

The house was silent; the boys most likely already outside, getting ready to say their goodbyes.  I wasn’t really sure whether I would see them ever again.

Taking a last look around the tidy room, at the finger paintings the Lads had done that I had hanging on the walls; I studied the family drawings Niall and Josh had made with me and Louis right in the middle, large smiles on our stick figure bodies.  I traced my finger over each member of the family drawn together and felt my heart tighten.  I turned away, quickly walking towards the exit.  I couldn’t be there any longer.

Slipping out of the home, which had become all too stuffy, my mind on trying not to cry, I looked up to see the sun shining brightly, a few birds happily chirping away.  The opening around the house was empty, the Lost Lads nowhere to be seen.

I was about to call out for them when something warm clamped around my mouth jerking me back.  My yell was muffled behind a cloth that was shoved into my mouth as pirates entered the clearing from where they’d been hidden behind the trees.  The Lost Lads, tied up with cloth also in between their mouths, were dragged out into the opening, trying to kick at the pirates that had them hostage and get away.

I yelled as hard as I could, trying to wriggle away from the disgusting bandit who had grabbed me.  Much against my will, a bunch of them quickly tied my arms behind my back, shoving me towards the others who were kicking and hollering to no avail.

I could see Paul looking around anxiously as the Lads and I were dragged away from the home and from Louis who wouldn’t be expecting anything.  I had to warn him...  I had to get this cloth out from in between my teeth, from in between my lips that still burned hot from Louis’ touch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the really long wait! Only one chapter left! Thanks to everyone who is reading this story! :)


	9. Chapter 9

[Harry’s POV]

 

“What’s going on?” I yelled, demanding an explanation from the black haired pirate scowling down at me; where he stood fixing his hook. “Why?!” My voice was bordering on hysterical as I questioned him, feeling tight ropes constraining my arms and holding me to the mast of the ship. The other boys fidgeted in their own, shouting bad words at all the pirates on board.

“Revenge.” Simon responded, letting out a laugh. “I can’t let you live!   Not when Louis cares for each and every one of you. We’ll just say you’re compensation for my lost hand.” He mused, staring at the shiny silver as it glint in the midday sunlight.

“Louis’ll come save us!” Niall exclaimed, wriggling against his constraints. Simon merely glanced in his direction before letting out another bark of laughter.

“No he won’t. He’s at home right now with a little present his darling Harry left him.” All eyes fell on me as I spluttered under the attention.

“What--what’d you do?”

“You’ll see soon enough…” He smirked. “Now who wants to go to the sharks first?” His question was received by more threats from the Lads. “Should we start with the youngest then?” He asked eyeing the crowd until his scrutiny landed on Lux.

She couldn’t possibly know what was going on, but her tears showed she was certainly scared from all the pandemonium and yelling surrounding her.

I immediately shouted in protest, “No, I’ll go! I’ll go first…” I couldn’t let her die; I couldn’t let any of the children die... I looked towards them, feeling my heart wrench. How could I have done this? Put them in danger? They were all so young... Even I was too young to die…

I returned my gaze back to the Captain as he shrugged, with a tilt to his grin, “Fair enough. You’ll all be at the bottom of the sea by the end of the day anyways.”

I felt gruff hands yank me up from the ground as the boys yelled my name; the twins starting to cry. It was hard to concentrate when all the Lads were shouting and the pirates were bellowing commands at each other. I was being shoved towards the side of the ship where a plank stood out above dark waters.

A sudden explosion from inland immediately silenced every voice as we all looked to see a cloud of smoke rising above a group of trees; right where our home was, right where Louis would’ve been. My breath caught as my thoughts turned to the older boy.

A bomb… That was what Simon had left him.

No more protests left the Lad’s lips; no more shouts erupted from the pirate’s dirty mouths. Only Simon seemed to be smiling.

I bit my lip, hard, to stop myself from crying. I couldn’t believe what had just happened… Louis was dead… and it was all my fault.

My limbs moved against their will as I was shoved out onto the plank, my hands wound tightly with rope. Wind rustled my hair, blowing at the few tears I let fall from my eyes. I closed them, feeling a sharp point on my back where someone held up a sword, urging me forward.   With one more push of the blade, I jumped; waiting for the ocean to surround me and the taste of salt water to fill my lungs.

Seconds passed. It didn’t come… And instead of cold water, I felt warmth; wind no longer blowing past my face. I took in a shaky breath and when I felt my weight being cradled to someone’s chest my eyes flew open. My mouth parted in disbelief as I looked up to see Louis beaming down at me. “Louis, I thought…”

He quieted me, gently holding me still in his arms. Instead of saying anything more, I leaned up, giving him the quickest of kisses to his lips. I was so unbelievably happy he was alive, I couldn’t even believe it.

The older boy grinned down at me, going back in for a kiss of his own before he stopped when we heard the commotion coming from the ship deck (“Where’d he go?” “Did you hear a splash?” “I didn’t hear one…” “Did he drown…?”)

“I really need to stop falling...” I mumbled sheepishly to Louis as he moved us into the shadows of the ship’s hull where the pirates wouldn’t be able to see the two of us.

“I’ll catch you every time.” He grinned back before flying us around the stern of the ship and above, to the lookout tower where he placed me gingerly on the ground, my legs still a bit shaky from plunging to what I thought would be my death. Simon yelled at his crew as they went to retrieve Grimmy from the lineup and Louis quickly cut off the ropes bounding my hands together, catching me in a hug when I had them free.

“I’m so glad you’re safe.”

“I’m glad _you’re_ safe.” I responded back before he gripped my waist tighter with his arms, flying us down behind where the boys were and handing me a knife so I could undo their constraints. He gave my hand a lingering squeeze before flying up to one of the sails.

“Simon.” He bellowed before the Captain turned, anger and confusion written in his eyes. He seemed genuinely surprised Louis was alive. “You’ve gone too far this time.”

All of the boys started cheering for Louis, turning to me after realizing they were being untied.

(“I’m so glad you didn’t die, Harry.” “I thought we lost both of you!” “Let me at ‘em!”) The Lads chorused in whispers as Louis distracted the pirates with his taunts.

When they were all free, each of the boys scurried past me to a barrel of swords near the side of the ship. They immediately charged at the unsuspecting pirates, screaming and hollering; mayhem breaking loose as I picked up my own weapon.

A pirate jumped in front of me as I moved to join the fight, pulling out a dagger and baring his blackened gums. I fought him off, trying to keep my eyes on all of the other Lads, praying no one would get hurt.

Eventually I was able to push the pirate overboard; using the time afterwards to look around, searching for Louis; the only one I hadn’t maintained a good watch on. He and Captain Simon were farther up on the ship, on the quarterdeck, provoking and hacking their swords at each other.

I involuntarily flinched every time Simon’s weapon even got near to touching Louis.

It seemed like he was fending for himself well though, but when I turned back towards him after helping Michael with another pirate, the Captain had Louis pinned against the ledge of the ship. “He was going to leave you, Louis. Harry was going to leave you.” I could just barely catch what Simon was saying to him, but I could see the frown etched onto Louis’ features clearly. “After all, he misses his parents, he doesn't need you.”

I had never seen Louis look like he did right then before, a crinkle of insecurity in his brow. He shoved Simon back with his legs, flying a few feet away to create some space between them. He landed on his feet again, sword aimed towards the Captain.

Simon continued with his taunting, Louis unusually quiet as he listened to the harsh words. “What can you provide for him that they can’t? ‘ _Love_?’ It's not enough. He needs to grow up.” With each sentence the Captain lunged forward, Louis just barely avoiding the blade of his weapon at each swing. “You’re being selfish, Lewis.” The name made an even larger scowl flicker onto Louis’ face. It was clear Simon’s words were affecting him though, as his fighting grew rougher and more rudimentary, reluctant almost as he hesitated before each counter attack. “And no one likes people who are selfish.”

Simon wacked him with the blunt end of his sword; the blow sending Louis backwards off the quarterdeck and onto the main floor of the ship below. Simon made his way down as Louis tried to get up.

“Harry doesn’t want you.” Simon challenged, nearing Louis again where the lad stirred, head reeling. Another pirate swung his sword at me as I turned away from Louis to defend myself.

“Harry was going to leave you.” I could hear Louis grunt and more clanking of swords as I continued fighting my own opponent off.

It seemed, for the second time that day, that everything stopped; all eyes on the scene unfolding behind me. I immediately turned to see the sword fly out of Louis’ grasp, and Simon’s hook press against his neck.

“Harry doesn’t love you.” Simon continued, almost out of breath as he pinned Louis to the door of the Captain’s quarters. “He was going to leave.” He muttered, sneering as Louis’ expression finally showed a hint of defeat.

I took a step forward, afraid if I made any bold moves, the Captain would kill Louis right then and there. “It’s not true, Louis.” I breathed out, only loud enough for him to hear. I could feel Simon glance at me from over his shoulder, giving me a nasty scowl, but all I could see was Louis’ empty gaze.

I took a few more steps forward, wanting to get to him as quickly as I could; wanting to touch him and hold him, and tell him it was all a lie. “It’s not true Louis!” I uttered louder this time. “I didn’t want to go, I didn’t--”

“Shut up!” I felt a grimy hand cover my mouth and hold me back from going any further.

Simon turned his attention back to Louis. Pushing his hook into his neck the tiniest bit harder, I could see his skin straining against the blade.

I knew Simon was enjoying tearing Louis apart, not just physically, but telling him these things; watching him grow timid and afraid, and weak. “You were going to take him away, were you? And keep him here, with you, for forever?!” Simon asked, a condescending tone dripping from his lips. He let out a few scoffs as he gripped Louis’ shirt, and moved his hook to slice a cut into his cheek.

Louis didn’t flinch or cringe from the pain, didn’t even really seem to realize it had happened; his eyes never leaving mine.

“Like anyone would want to stay with you…” He let out another laugh. “Only a child would believe that.”

Louis growled, trying to cover his insecurities with the mask of confidence he usually wore, but there was doubt still in his eyes. I thrashed around in the pirates grip, trying to break free from his hold. All I wanted was to run to Louis, to reassure him. Tell him that I would’ve stayed with him; that I wanted to. I would’ve stayed with him forever if given the choice... But now it was too late, Captain Simon had his hook back at his neck.

Biting the grimy fingers covering my mouth, the pirate let go with a startled howl. “Louis!” I yelled making both him and Simon look back over at me. There was an innocent weakness held in his gaze, an uncertainty mimicking its way onto the set of his lips as Simon pushed his hook further into Louis’ throat. I froze in terror, my voice harsh and unwavering, “I do want to stay with you Louis... I love you. I really do.”

“Say your last goodbyes.” Simon spoke up, pulling his arm back to swing his weapon into Louis’ neck.

A blur of gold appeared in front of the pirate, marring his vision, stopping his swing as he went to grab at the object attacking his face. He yelled out as Tinker El pulled at his eyelashes and threw dust in his eyes. She kicked at his face and struck at his nose giving Louis enough time to gain his senses and jump away, picking his sword back up where it had been lying.

It seemed that Louis had been revived by my words. No more doubt or hesitation in his features; a sense of confidence exuding from his being. He quickly flew into the air, taking up his advantage as Simon struggled to grab hold of El. When he did take hold of the pixie, he shook her furiously, some magic dust falling onto him. He threw her at the hard wooden deck, rising into the air.

I ran over to her unmoving body, picking her gingerly up in my hands. “Tinker El… please don’t die.” I pleaded quietly, nudging at her arms, hoping she would open her eyes. “Louis needs you. Don’t do this to him.” There was still no movement from the fairy. “I’m sorry I made you two get into a fight… I’m really sorry.   Please wake up.” I bit my lip, continuing to mumble apologies. With one last prod, she slowly blinked, wiping the bleariness from her eyes and making disgruntled noises while doing so. She glanced around herself, looking up to see me as I let out the breath I had been holding. She was okay.

The pixie sat up and quickly zoomed out of my palms. Before I could react to whatever she was going to do she flew up to my face and gave me a quick peck to the cheek before flying off to help Ed fight the pirate he was up against, as all other fighting had already resumed.

My eyes traveled to the skies to see where Louis and Simon were. Louis’ face was lit with a smile so large it was hard to believe he had been on deaths door not even five minutes prior. I quickly picked up a sword and joined the battle that was raging on the deck of the pirate’s ship around us.

“Do you hear that Simon?” I could hear Louis bellow from above. It was hard to pick out what he was talking about, with the yelling going on, but when I figured out what to listen for, I could hear it too. A faint ticking noise; that sounded as if it was getting closer. I could see Simon growing more nervous as he fought with Louis. It was as if their roles had reversed after my admission to loving him. Now Louis had the upper hand and Simon seemed hesitant and anxious in his strikes.

I could hear Louis saying things to Simon, making him angrier, and I could see the old pirate sinking lower in the sky. It dawned on me what Louis was doing. In order to fly you had to have happy thoughts, and Simon was definitely becoming less and less happy as the fight progressed. I could see Simon sinking even further down, where he was stretched out over the waters. He kept glancing down, freaking out, and sinking lower, and I could only assume it was because the ticking noise was coming from below him; where the crocodile was.

Louis continued taunting the pirate and when Simon sunk below where we could see, everyone—pirates and Lost Lads included-- rushed over to the side of the ship. We could see the top of the crocodile’s head and his open mouth as Simon sunk lower, screaming for help. And when he was eaten in one swift bite, everyone cringed, the rest of the pirates jumping ship to scurry into a small life boat Paul was paddling away in.

There was a moment of tense silence after that where no one was quite sure what to do before hollers of victory were suddenly shouted around the boat. The lads all cheered running around and hugging each other; and as Grimmy suggested, all threw their swords up in the air as if they were top hats, yelling h’ip-hip-hooray’. The idea didn’t seem like such a good one when they all had to duck upon the weapon’s descent back to the ground.

I rushed over to Louis where he lowered himself on the quarterdeck of the ship, throwing my arms around him and squeezing as tightly as I could. We had won, he was alive. When we pulled apart Louis smiled sheepishly, averting his gaze to the ground.

“Hey Harry… did you really mean what you said when you said you wanted to stay with me...?” Louis asked, timidly taking the helm of the boat in his hands.

“For forever.” I responded almost immediately, making him turn to me in surprise.

Placing my hand in my pocket I felt around for the thimble Louis had gotten me when he had thought it was a kiss, and blushed.

Gazing into his eyes, I took a quick glance towards his pretty pink lips, leaning the tiniest bit closer. I could tell he had also leaned in as the ghosts of his lips were on mine.

A nudge to the right of my hip startled me as our lips just barely touched.

 

A gentle nudging to my side made me grumble in exhaustion.

“Wake up Hazza.” The angelic voice I loved to hear, soothed. I crinkled my eyes open, seeing his face in the dim lighting.

Louis smiled down at me, as I blinked a few more times to see his blue gaze more clearly.

“Sorry Boo.” My voice was hoarse, sleep clinging to it. I could tell the time was late and that it was still night out, as the moon peaked through our open window. “I always fall asleep when you read me Peter Pan...” I murmured, sitting up until I was on the same eye level as him.

“It’s alright babe, I just wanted you to scoot over.” He responded sweetly.

I realized I was taking up most of the bed and obliged, feeling Louis pull the blankets over himself as we lay back down. “Much better.” He mouthed as I snuggled into the crook of his neck, the sleepiness returning. He reached up to turn off the bedside lamp, leaving us in a comfortable darkness. I could hear his even breaths lulling me back to sleep. “Can I have a thimble Haz?” He questioned after a few minutes of silence.

I grinned in response, humming my consent. Placing a tiny kiss on his neck, I traveled up towards his mouth, to cup his cheek with my hand. I pressed my lips to his, soft and slow, feeling him shift underneath me to get a better angle.

After a few moments of sweet kisses and soft caresses, I sluggishly pulled away, placing another quick peck to his nose before lying back down on our pillow. “I love you Lou.”

He turned on his side to hold me closer. “I love you too Haz. See you in dream land?” He questioned softly.

“No. In Neverland…” I murmured back making him scoff out a laugh.

With a last small smile I drifted off to sleep, knowing I’d wake up next to my very own Lost Lad; feeling just happy enough that if given a little fairy dust I could probably fly.

 

_“You know that place between sleeping and awake, that place where you can still remember dreaming? That's where I'll always think of you.”_

― J.M. Barrie

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! :)


End file.
